Maryland women’s basketball vs. Northwestern final score, with 3 things to know from the Terps’ 96-65 win

The Maryland women’s basketball team was dominant Saturday in a 96-65 home win over Northwestern.

Just like in the No. 3 Terps’ win Wednesday at Nebraska, Maryland started the game on a roll and never let up a big lead. Through three Big Ten games, the team has not trailed at all and been tied for only 64 seconds (all at the start of games).

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough scored a team-high 18 points, 11 of which came in the first half. Brionna Jones recorded her sixth straight double-double and 10th of the season with 15 points and 13 boards. Destiny Slocum added 16 points, five rebounds and four assists; she had four turnovers in the first quarter, but only had two after that.

The Terps’ scoring depth was on display Saturday. Ieshia Small had 14 points, Kristen Confroy added 12 on 4-of-7 three-point shooting and Kaila Charles almost joined the double-figures party with eight.

Nia Coffey started slow but had 22 points by the time she fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Christen Inman was the Wildcats’ only reliable offensive weapon early and finished with 17. No other Northwestern player scored more than seven.

The Terps won the rebounding battle 47-30 and had 17 offensive boards, leading to 26 second-chance points. The Wildcats only had six of those. Maryland also scored 24 points off turnovers while allowing just 13.

Maryland led 23-10 after the first quarter. The Terps forced turnovers on Northwestern’s first three possessions and started on a 6-0 run. Jones had six points and six boards in the opening frame. Inman had a game-high nine for the Wildcats, but the rest of Northwestern was 0-of-10 from the field.

Inman’s teammates picked it up a little in the second quarter, but the Terps’ long-range shooting kept them firmly ahead. Maryland led 45-22 at halftime. Slocum swished a pair of long three-pointers in short succession, which was the highlight of the quarter. She and Walker-Kimbrough each had 11 at halftime.

The Terps’ lead remained above 20 points throughout the second half, even as Coffey tried to will the Wildcats back into the game with 17 third-quarter points. Northwestern shot 69 percent in the third, but Maryland still won the period 27-25 thanks to a heap of threes and second-chance points.

Brenda Frese emptied the bench in the middle of the fourth quarter, after Coffey had already fouled out. The Terps’ biggest stars picked up a couple extra points each in the final period, but nobody played more than 31 minutes in the game.

Maryland is now 3-0 in conference play and 15-1 overall. The Terps host Penn State Wednesday.

Three things to know

1. Maryland throttled a good Northwestern team. The Wildcats entered this game 13-3 with only one blowout loss (a 23-point defeat at DePaul) and were coming off a hard-fought game against Ohio State. On Saturday, Joe McKeown’s team started slow and couldn’t catch up.

2. The three was more of a factor. Maryland took only five threes in the first half Wednesday at Nebraska. That number jumped to 13 Saturday, and the Terps sank six of them (46 percent). The team finished the game 10-of-24 from downtown.

3. Ieshia Small was big off the bench. She tied her career high with 14 points and was 5-of-7 from the floor. She was inadvertently listed in the starting lineup briefly before the game, but she played like she belonged there.