By Lila Bromberg

The No. 14 Maryland Terrapins (17-3, 6-1 Big Ten) defeated Northwestern (9-12, 2-5 Big Ten) 68-65 on the road, but struggled to do so.

The game should have come easy following a 30-point blowout of No. 12 Ohio State, but the Terps’ inconsistency with several scoring droughts brought the game down to the wire late.

Maryland was up by a mere two points — 63-61 — with less than a minute to go in the game. After a timeout, Kaila Charles made an and-one to put her team up by five.

Though Maryland forced Northwestern to turnover the ball on an inbound play, Northwestern got a jump ball and scored to make it a three point game with seconds left.

Senior Kristen Confroy sealed the game after making two foul shots.

Sophomore Kaila Charles led the Terps early to shoot over 65 percent in the first quarter, going perfect on five shots for 11 points, but picked up two fouls and sat for the rest of the half.

Charles, whom Maryland has relied on as their leading scorer this season, simply couldn’t get back in a scoring groove for the rest of the game and the team followed suit. The Terps shot a measly 28 percent in the second half, while Northwestern shot 50 percent.

Only three Terps finished with double digit scoring, despite seven players averaging double digits. Charles led with 17 points, junior Eleanna Christinaki had 15 and junior Brianna Fraser had 13.

Maryland faces Rutgers at Xfinity Center on Feb. 1 in hopes of another conference win.