EditorsNote: adds "Jr." in lede
Jalen Smith and Anthony Cowan Jr. combined for 41 points as No. 7 Maryland beat Northwestern 76-67 Tuesday night in College Park, Md., for the Terrapins' ninth straight victory.
Smith had 22 points and a career-high 19 rebounds while Cowan had 19 points and five assists. Maryland (22-4, 13-3 Big Ten) improved to 15-0 at home this season and remained atop the conference standings. The Wildcats (6-19, 1-14) have lost 10 straight games.
Ryan Young had 17 points, 11 in the second half, to pace Northwestern, which shot 52.9 percent (18 of 34) in the second half to stay close. Boo Buie had 15 points and Miller Kopp added 13 for Northwestern.
Maryland led by 14 points early in the second half, but the Wildcats battled back to trail by four on a couple of occasions, the last at 10:45 on Buie's layup to make it 50-46. But Donta Scott answered with a 3-pointer to start a 7-2 run.
The Wildcats never got closer than six the rest of the way as Maryland completed a season sweep of Northwestern and continued the school's longest conference winning streak since capturing 12 in a row in the ACC in 2001-02, the year the Terrapins won the national championship.
Cowan passed Tom McMillen (1971-74) for eighth place on Maryland's all-time scoring list with 1,809 points. Darryl Morsell (13 points) and Scott (12) were also in double figures. Smith posted his ninth consecutive double-double.
The Terrapins ran off 10 straight points and ended the first half on a 12-3 run to take an 37-25 lead to the locker room, and they never trailed from there. Smith had 12 points and 12 rebounds by the break.
Northwestern had whittled an 11-point deficit down to 25-22 at 4:05 left in the half on Buie's jumper, but Morsell hit a corner 3-pointer 20 seconds later to start the 10-0 spree.
Maryland had a 41-33 rebounding edge, led by Smith's big effort, and the Terrapins shot 18 of 22 at the free-throw line, including 14 of 17 in the second half to stave off the Wildcats.
Northwestern was 6 of 8 at the line for the game but hung close as Maryland connected on just 1 of 13 3-point attempts in the final 20 minutes.
Northwestern returns home to host Minnesota on Sunday. The Terrapins travel to No. 25 Ohio State the same day.
--Field Level Media
