INDIANAPOLIS — Maryland continued its dominance in Big Ten play.
Now, after an 83-62 win over Northwestern in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament on Saturday, the fifth-ranked Terrapins, the No. 1 seed, will advance to the championship game for the second time in two years in the conference. They’ll face No. 19 and No. 3 seed Michigan State on Sunday.
Maryland used a second-half run to put the game away.
“I felt like that at halftime we should be able to separate,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “I thought [Northwestern] played as hard as they could in the first 20 minutes, but that is where you like to see that separation.”
Brionna Jones had 17 points and 11 rebounds, Tierney Pfirman finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Brene Moseley each had 15 points for the Terrapins (29-3), who went on a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to pull away for their eighth consecutive win.
Northwestern’s Nia Coffey scored 31 points to set a tournament record with 100 points in four games. Allie Tuttle added 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting for the Wildcats (18-16), who have lost their last five games against Maryland.
The 12th-seeded Wildcats went on an impressive run in the tournament. After winning just four league games and losing six of seven to end the regular season, the Wildcats won three games in three days to become the lowest-seeded team to advance to the Big Ten semifinals.
“In the big picture, what we did this week, the way we played, to win three games in three days,” Northwestern coach Joe McKeown said. “I’m just going to look at it as a great experience for our team.”
After falling behind early against Maryland, Northwestern struggled to rally. Coffey made back-to-back 3-pointers in the first quarter to give the Wildcats an 8-7 lead before the Terrapins went on a 15-2 spurt and took a 22-10 lead when Walker-Kimbrough converted a 3-point play with 2:14 left in the opening quarter.
Coffey scored twice in a 12-2 run by the Wildcats in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 33-26 with 2:23 remaining in the first half.
Northwestern got no closer.
“I don’t know if we got relaxed some with the big lead,” Pfirman said. “We went into a major scoring drought. Offensively, we just really weren’t clicking.”
Maryland led 37-30 at halftime and opened the second half with a 3-pointer by Confroy before Walker-Kimbrough scored to put the Terrapins ahead, 42-30, early in the third.
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