A third-straight road defeat.
The 14-12 Maryland Terrapins traveled to Madison, Wisconsin on Tuesday to face the 17-9 Wisconsin Badgers in the Kohl Center.
Both Maryland and Wisconsin were looking to bounce back after losing their respective games on Saturday. Maryland suffered an 85-80 loss to No. 12 Illinois in College Park while Wisconsin lost 88-86 to Iowa on the road.
Wisconsin came out on top in its home stand, sending Maryland back home with a 74-70 loss.
“We’re just getting off to lethargic starts,” head coach Kevin Willard said in his post-game presser. “We kind of did in Iowa and we did the same thing tonight.”
Maryland’s starting five consisted of guards DeShawn Harris-Smith and Jahmir Young with forwards Jordan Geronimo, Julian Reese and Donta Scott.
The Terps spent the first seven minutes trailing Wisconsin but finally took their first hold of the lead at 13:51 after making an 8-0 run with baskets from Jamie Kaiser Jr., Reese and Young. Wisconsin gave up three offensive turnovers in that span.
As the clock passed 10 minutes, Wisconsin gave Maryland the treatment it had just received. Capitalizing off of three offensive turnovers, the Badgers put together a 10-0 run to pull ahead by multiple possessions.
Julian Reese and Jahmir Young were crucial for keeping Maryland in the game as halftime approached. In six minutes the duo combined for 11 points to make it a one-point game with only four minutes remaining.
With 30 seconds left in the half, Willard received a technical foul which gave Wisconsin’s Max Klesmit two free-throw baskets to put his team ahead by eight. Marking the final points of the period, the Badgers went into the locker room ahead at 37-29.
Young (with 11 points) and Reese (with nine) led the Terps in points at the half. Tyler Wahl led for Wisconsin with 10 points followed by Steven Crowl, Chucky Hepburn and AJ Storr who tied each other with six.
“You gotta give Tyler Wahl credit because the kid plays really, really hard. He was really a difference in the first half,” Willard said. “That was probably the most aggressive I’ve seen him offensively out of the four or five games we watched on film.”
Wisconsin spent the first ten minutes of the second half ensuring that Maryland came no closer than six points, despite making just one of eight field goal attempts in the span of three of those minutes. Maryland faced just as much difficulty finding the net with only Reese, Donta Scott and Young making any sort of production.
“That’s something we’ve struggled with a bit all year, getting that third guy to be a consistent scorer,” Willard said. “Donta needs to be that guy, and in the second half he was great. He was much more aggressive.”
With six minutes left in the game, Maryland had made 19 of 42 shot attempts while Wisconsin made 19 of 41. The seven-point deficit in the score came from Wisconsin’s 15 free throws which overshadowed Maryland’s mere eight.
Basketless in its two-point attempts for four straight minutes, Maryland still managed to enter the media timeout at 3:20 down by five points. The free throws had finally caught up for the Terps who took six more to fall just two short of Wisconsin’s 15.
A minute later, DeShawn Harris-Smith received his fourth personal foul of the game but would stay on the floor. Wisconsin was also in foul trouble with Crowl and Wahl each at four as well.
Maryland entered the final minute trailing by seven points. A three-pointer from Scott, who also had four personal fouls, cut the lead down to four with 30 seconds left.
Resorting to fouling in the final seconds, the Terps would lose Scott and land short at 67-70 with 11 seconds left. After two Wisconsin foul shots from Chucky Hepburn, Jamie Kaiser Jr. drained a three-pointer on the other end to make it a two-point game.
Max Klesmit was fouled once more, and his two foul shots put Wisconsin ahead by four when time expired.
Maryland’s point-leaders were Young (20 points), Reese (18 points) and Scott (12 points). Wisconsin was led by Tyler Wahl (18 points), Klesmit (16 points), Hepburn (11 points) and AJ Storr (10 points).
“These guys are playing hard, working hard and they have a great attitude. They’re just as frustrated as I am with the fact that we can’t string together some W’s.”
The Terps face Rutgers on Sunday in New Jersey— a second-straight road game.
