With the calendar turning to March, Maryland men’s basketball still has a lot to play for in the final two regular season games. The Terps have a slim shot of earning a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament, but they’ll likely need to win out.
A pair of NCAA Tournament teams looming on the horizon are not the matchups Maryland wanted to see on the schedule — it will have to play its best basketball to pull off upsets. That difficult stretch started with Friday’s road matchup against Wisconsin.
After displaying one of its worst halves of the season against Rutgers, it didn’t get much better in Madison. The Terps shot just 25 percent from deep and missed five layups en route to a 21-point first half.
Those scoring woes continued in the final 20 minutes, as Maryland managed a season-low 45 points. The Terps suffered a 78-45 loss to Wisconsin for their third straight defeat. Maryland is on track for its worst win-total since 1992-93.
The Terps are no stranger to skids this season. Maryland has suffered consecutive defeats on six occasions, highlighted by a pair of four-game losing streaks. To make matters worse, the Terps have 15 double-digit losses — one of the highest marks of any power conference team.
But Sunday’s home loss to Rutgers will arguably go down as the low point of the season. Maryland only totaled 21 first-half points and committed 14 turnovers. While the Terps’ offense came to life in the final 20 minutes, a blown lead late stamped a disappointing defeat.
And Maryland’s cold shooting only carried over to its final road game.
After Solomon Washington produced the first points of the game, the Terps embarked on an over four-minute scoring drought. That allowed Wisconsin’s offense to find its footing. John Blackwell and Nolan Winter fueled the Badgers to six consecutive points.
With Maryland’s offense struggling to find a bucket, it turned to reliable three-point assassin Elijah Saunders. The senior has nailed 40.3% of his shots from deep — good for one of the highest-clips in the Big Ten.
Saunders entered with three consecutive double-digit outputs. But he was over halfway to that total in just a two-minute span, splashing two triples to fuel the Terps to a 10-8 lead. Saunders finished with 11 points.
That was the last time Maryland led, though. Wisconsin closed out the first half on a 26-11 run to build a comfortable lead.
While Blackwell and Nick Boyd have been the Badgers’ top scorers this season, Wednesday’s spurt was propelled by senior Braeden Carrington. He entered the contest averaging just over eight points and only had seven games in double-figures.
Still, Carrington was fresh off a career-high 32-point performance, which saw him nail a program-high nine three-pointers off the bench. Carrington’s hot stretch continued on Wednesday. He poured in a game-high 13 first-half points, including seven straight to kickstart Wisconsin’s run.
Even with the Badgers leading by 13 at the break, Maryland’s defense played well early in the first half.
Wisconsin — a team that entered tied for the fifth-highest three-point shooting percentage in the Big Ten at 35.5% — missed its first nine triples. Maryland limited the Badgers to just 11 points in the game’s opening nine minutes.
But after Blackwell buried the team’s first shot from deep, one of the conference’s most potent offenses began to click. Wisconsin nailed six of its next nine three-pointers, allowing it to score 23 points in the final 11 minutes.
Carrington, Boyd and Blackwell combined to score 28 first-half points — more than Maryland’s total. The Terps’ 21 points in 20 minutes was tied for their second-fewest in a half this season.
Even with only 10 turnovers, Maryland failed to find a rhythm on the offensive end. While the Terps don’t have many capable scorers outside of Saunders and Andre Mills — the duo combined for over half of the team’s points — they haven’t pushed the pace this season.
Maryland has the 11th-fewest fastbreak points per game in the nation at 6.2. For a team that has struggled to get quality looks in their half-court sets, the Terps’ inability to get easy buckets in transition has led to one of the Big Ten’s worst offenses.
Wednesday’s loss furthered Maryland’s abysmal season, and it won’t have a chance to end the regular season on a high note. No. 11 Illinois comes to College Park in a game that has all the makings of an embarrassing defeat.
