Pete Nance had 17 points and 10 rebounds as visiting Northwestern ruined Danny Manning’s debut as interim coach in a 67-61 win over Maryland on Sunday afternoon in College Park, Md.
Northwestern (6-2, 1-0 Big Ten) pulled away in the second half with the help of Boo Buie, who added 16 points and five rebounds.
Chase Audige, last season’s top scorer who missed the Wildcats’ first seven games with a hip injury, scored six of his 14 points in the final 5:05 to keep the Wildcats in charge. His fastbreak reverse layup off his own steal put Northwestern up 63-54 with 1:42 left.
Playing two days after the sudden departure of Mark Turgeon in his 11th season as head coach, Maryland (5-4, 0-1) was looking for a fresh start under Manning. But the Terps were haunted by a familiar problem as they made just 28.8 percent of their shots from the floor.
Hakim Hart collected 18 points and seven rebounds for Maryland, which saw the rest of the team make just 10 of shots. Fatts Russell and Eric Ayala combined for 21 points despite made just 5 of 24 shots.
Northwestern started fast, with Buie scoring five points during a 9-0 run to give his team an 11-5 lead. But with Hart leading the offense, the Terps stayed in it.
A 3-pointer by Donta Scott early in the second half gave Maryland a 37-35 lead. But it was short-lived as Northwestern answered with a 12-2 run to take the lead for good.
Audige fueled the spree with back-to-back buckets, Ty Berry added a 3-pointer and Fairleigh Dickinson grad transfer Elyjah Williams culminated the run with a 3 that put the Wildcats in charge, 47-39, with 12:05 left.
Maryland got the deficit to one point on a 3-pointer by Russell with 4:32 left but Audige and Nance answered with two buckets each in an eight-point run that sewed it up.
–Field Level Media
