Maryland men’s basketball’s season to date has been one that fans hope reaches its conclusion soon. The Terps have suffered four 30-point defeats and have dropped their previous three games by a combined 92 points.

With nearly a month left in the regular season, Maryland players and coaches are focused on making strides down the stretch, instead of outcome-based progress. Even so, the Terps only have 10 games left to avoid a single-digit win total for the first time in over three decades.

Thursday’s contest against Ohio State was one of Maryland’s best chances to secure its second Big Ten win of the season. Against a Buckeyes team that has struggled on the road, the Terps had a prime opportunity to snap their three-game losing streak.

But Maryland couldn’t capitalize. Even with a 20-point scoring output from Elijah Saunders, the Terps’ dismal play resulted in an 82-62 loss to Ohio State Thursday night.

“I never want to justify losing in any sort of way, but I think the competitive spirit that they played with. Our guys hustling after one another,” Buzz Williams said. “We didn’t get every 50/50 ball tonight, but we were trying better. I appreciate the resilience and the togetherness amidst all the volatility.”

Nothing encapsulates Maryland’s struggles more than what transpired at the 10:17 mark in the second half. After the ball slipped through Collin Metcalf’s fingertips for Maryland’s 13th turnover of the night, Williams dropped to his hands and knees in disbelief.

That sequence alone displayed Maryland’s nightmare stretch against quality opposition.

Throughout Maryland’s torrid season, Williams has constantly switched lineups to find some sort of success. That trend continued tonight. Metcalf made just his second start of the season despite failing to log a point in over two months of action.

His presence wasn’t much of a solution to Maryland’s problems. Despite scoring two points and swatting away two blocks, Metcalf committed four fouls in 15 minutes on the court.

In just 22 games this year, the Terps have trotted out 11 different starting lineups. But nothing has worked.

“I thought that our 11th lineup change was to see if we could look eye to eye, a little bit more from a height length standpoint, and to not fight from such a deficit on the glass,” Williams said. “In many respects, I think that happened. Our offensive rebound percentage was the highest it’s been in a long time.”

Williams has searched for his best primary ball handler in Maryland’s ever-changing five-man group. Myles Rice and Diggy Coit haven’t been the consistent answer, so Andre Mills was tasked with that role on Thursday.

Mills has been the Terps’ top scorer during the skid. The redshirt freshman has dropped 39 combined points in the last three games, including pouring in a career-high 18 points against Purdue.

With Mills running the offense, Maryland thrived early on. The Terps scored six points in the game’s opening three minutes and totaled two early assists. Maryland’s ball movement was noticeably better, leaving Ohio State defenders scrambling.

“I thought our basket-assist rate was the highest that it’s been all season long,” Williams said. “We were sharing the ball much better.”

The Terps entered the night with the fewest assists per game in the Big Ten at 8.5. Maryland mustered a near season-low five assists in its last contest.

But once Coit subbed in, the Terps’ offense quickly stagnated again. Even with Coit knocking down a pair of jumpers, Ohio State capitalized on Maryland’s lineup change. The Buckeyes strung together a 16-6 run to open up an 11-point lead.

Ohio State entered with just five steals per game — the second-worst clip in the Big Ten. Still, the Terps’ sloppiness persisted. Maryland finished with 16 turnovers, which the Buckeyes flipped to 24 points. The Terps had just two points off turnovers and failed to produce any fastbreak buckets.

Early in the season, the Terps got to the free-throw line at ease. With its inefficient shooting, that was Maryland’s most reliable point production source. However, in consecutive games, that hasn’t been there — the Terps needed 11 minutes to get to the charity stripe.

Instead, it was Ohio State who notched the game’s first free throws. Five makes aided the Buckeyes during their run.

Alongside those easy points, Ohio State got steady production from Bruce Thornton and Christoph Tilly. The duo scored the Buckeyes’ first four points and combined for half of the team’s 42 points at the break.

Thornton has been Ohio State’s top scorer this season, dropping 19.5 points with the most playing time in the Big Ten — he plays 36.5 minutes per contest. Behind his 4-of-5 first-half shooting performance, the Buckeyes took a 42-30 lead at the break.

Maryland’s 3-point production didn’t help either. The Terps shot just 2-of-11 from deep, with Darius Adams and Saunders producing the lone makes. After one of their worst shooting outputs from behind the arc in the last game, Maryland couldn’t find any success from the perimeter.

The Big Ten’s second-worst offense fell flat for its fourth consecutive loss. The Terps schedule ahead doesn’t produce any more favorable matchups.