Just like the first two matchups, Maryland overcame a large deficit only to fall short in the closing minutes against Michigan State. Only this time, the loss ended Maryland’s season.
Maryland was down by as many as 20 against Michigan State in their first game of the Big Ten Tournament but pulled to within two in the closing seconds before the Spartans secured a 76-72 win.
“I'm really proud of the effort that our young men displayed throughout the course of this year,” Maryland interim head coach Danny Manning said following the loss. “A unique and challenging year to say the least and these guys brought it every day, competed and they left it all on the floor. So as a staff, we're all appreciative of those efforts and today we ran into a very tough team in Michigan State that made more plays than us down the stretch.”
Marcus Bingham Jr. got the scoring started for State, but Eric Ayala and Fatts Russell both responded with threes on their first attempts from the floor. Maryland began the game a little bit lost on defense, falling for shot fakes and leaving gaps in the midrange which allowed the Spartans to shoot five of their first six. Still, Maryland was able to stay within ten points throughout the first half but was forced to deal with foul trouble early after Julian Reese picked up a pair of fouls.
Reese picked up two of those first four fouls and the smaller lineup out of the floor gave State a wide-open look for three on a second chance opportunity. The possession after, Danny Manning put Wahab into the game, who was called on a careless three-second violation and then was burned Julius Marble to put Michigan State up eight. Despite the defensive intensity by Maryland, the Spartan's red hot shooting continued as they shot 67% from the field and three.
After Maryland found themselves down 43-34 at halftime, the Spartans opened the second half on a 14-3 run to push their lead to 20 with 13:04 left. But Russell and Donta Scott would help the Terps respond, combining to give Maryland a 12-2 run to bring the game back within reach. Maryland hovered around a ten-point deficit until the 2:45 mark, when the Terps chipped away and the game turned bonkers.
Four straight turnovers from the Spartans allowed Maryland to storm right back into the game. The first two being careless dead ball fouls resulted in two trips to the free-throw line which Fatts and Ayala made one of their two attempts. The third and fourth, live-ball turnovers by Walker and Bingham, which gave Hakim Hart an open lane to score, and then Fatts knocked down a deep three to cut the deficit to three. A costly turnover from Ayala gave the Spartans the ball back, but once again State turned the ball over leading to an and-one opportunity for Russell, which also took Hauser out of the game.
Walker made up for his turnover with a silky isolation look that put the Spartans back up four, and then Fatts forced up a tough look that couldn’t fall. After State knocked down two free throws to go back up six, an NBA range three from Ayala turned into a Hakim Hart lay-in. The carelessness of Michigan State and the tenacity of the Maryland press forced yet another turnover that was converted by Ayala. All of a sudden, with 20 seconds remaining, Maryland found themselves down two only to get the ball once more after a video review ruled that the ball went out of bounds off the Spartans, not Terps.
“We was just playing with a sense of urgency at the end,” Ayala added. “Our pressure gave us a chance to get back in the game and we just tried to make plays out of it, executing out of the steal. It definitely helped us a lot at the end.”
With one final play, Fatts Russell found himself in a one-on-one situation and opted for a stepback three, falling off the mark and cementing the Terps’ loss.
The loss ended the Terps’ run in the Big Ten Tournament and at 15-17 overall, gives the program its first losing season since 1992-93.
“I've only been here for this year, but the relationships that I gained, the people that I met, Coach [Danny] Manning and the rest of the coaching staff and my teammates, I don't know how to put it into words,” Russell emphasized. They mean a lot to me in that short period of time. I'm always going to come back to Maryland, check out the guys and just see how the program's doing. It's a part of me now, I'm proud to be a Terp.”