Maryland men's basketball gets embarrassed on Wisconsin's senior night

Chase King
Mar 5
3 min read

Maryland Men’s Basketball (11-19, 4-15 Big Ten) had its lowest scoring game since the 2011-12 season as it lost its third straight game.

Maryland went on the road to face the Wisconsin Badgers (21-9, 13-6 Big Ten) and was utterly embarrassed in a 78-45 loss. The Terps are now on a three-game road loss streak and have lost five of their last six games.

The Terrapins seemed to have something going after back-to-back wins against Minnesota and Iowa towards the start of February, but they have dived back to rock bottom.

The Terps scored only 20 points while committing 14 turnovers in the first half against Rutgers at home in their prior game.

Maryland would once again start slow against the Badgers. They opened the game 1-for-9 from the field, including 1-for-4 on layups. It wasn’t until Elijah Saunders made his first two three-pointers that the Terps would get their first spark on offense.

Wisconsin would also start the game slowly, allowing the Terps to take a 10-8 lead after eight minutes. The Badgers started 3-for-15 from the field and 0-for-9 from three.

The Terps could consider themselves lucky for that start as the Badgers entered the game 95th in the country in three-point shooting percentage, shooting 35.5% from three.

It wouldn’t be too long before the Badgers’ offense came alive. They finished the first half 9-for-14 from the field and 6-for-9 from three.

Maryland’s offense would stay stagnant in the first half as they found little success in the paint and struggled from three.

Maryland finished the first half with only 21 points, finishing 9-for-21 (32.1%) from the field and 3-of-12 (25%) from three, while committing five turnovers. Wisconsin would go into halftime with a 34-21 lead.

Guillermo Del Pino would make the first basket of the second half to cut the lead to 10 points, but that would be the closest the Terps would get for the rest of the game.

Wisconsin took over in the second half, and they’d do it fast with an 11-0 run that would give them a 21-point lead.

Maryland would fight back, occasionally hitting three-pointers, but Wisconsin would continue to go on large runs to keep the game in its control. Wisconsin had three runs of nine or more points in the second half.

The Terps finished the second half shooting only 8-of-28 (28.6%) from the field and 6-of-19 from three (31.6%). They finished the game with a season low of five free throw attempts.

“There were too many possessions, particularly the first ten minutes of the second half, where we weren't shooting the types of shots that we have to shoot,” said Head Coach Buzz Williams, “We can't get a rebound, and we can't potentially get fouled. They don't foul, but then you need your offense to help your defense.”

They would once again finish the half with five turnovers. Wisconsin finished the game with 16 points off turnovers.

“We played with five turnovers in the first half, five turnovers in the second half. That was dramatically better than the last time that we played,” said Williams. “That was encouraging.”

The Terps finished the game with only 16 points in the paint and with 55% of their shots coming from behind the arc.

“I think in the first half, 27% of our shots were in the charge circle. We made 57% of them. That number needs to be starting with a seven,” said Williams about the paint offense.

Wisconsin finished the game shooting 13-of-31 (41.9%) while also outscoring the Terps with 26 points in the paint.

Freshman Andre Mills would once again lead the Terps in scoring for the fifth game in a row. He finished with 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including 4-for-7 from three.

Elijah Saunders was the only other Terp in double figures. He finished with 11 points, he was 3-for-8 from three, and added a dunk. Del Pino was the Terps' third leading scorer with six points on two made threes.

Maryland will now look towards its own senior night as they host the No. 11 Illinois Fighting Illini on Sunday at 3 p.m. for its last home game of the season.

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