Maryland basketball fell against Wisconsin in the lone matchup this season, falling 74-70 in Madison, in the 12th loss this season decided by six points or fewer.
Maryland trailed by as many ten points in the opening minutes of the second half before clawing back and making it a two-possession game in the final minutes, trailing by only four with 91 seconds remaining. A late three from Jamie Kaiser Jr. cut the deficit to two before Jahari Long was called for a questionable block on the ensuing inbounds, putting the Badgers at the line to ice the game.
Jahmir Young finished with 20 points, making his ninth consecutive road game scoring 20 or more points, while Julian Reese notched 18 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks in the loss.
Maryland now falls to 14-13 (6-10) this season as head coach Kevin Willard recaps the loss:
Willard on having to overcome 37-29 halftime deficit vs. Wisconsin
“We we’re getting off to just slow starts offensively. We’re trying to, you can throw it in the [Julian Reese] so much but we’re just getting off to lethargic starts. We kind of did it at Iowa and we did the same thing. I thought the biggest difference in the second half is they got three huge offensive rebounds in the second half while every time we cut it to three, every time we cut it to two, they got a big offensive rebound and obviously [Max] Klesmit hits a huge, huge three to really end the game.”
Willard on why Wisconsin was able to secure offensive rebounds
“We were matching up and then we had some mismatches. Ju had to come up and guard the high post a couple times. Sometimes you just got to get a good break and two of their offensive rebounds bounced right into [Steven] Crowl’s hand. You got to give Tyler Wahl credit because the kid plays really, really hard. And he was really a difference in the first half. I thought he really was aggressive. That was the most aggressive I’ve seen him offensively probably in the four or five games we watched on film. Just our starts offensively, we’re always kind of clawing from behind and it’s really hurting us.”
Willard on needing more from DHS and Donta Scott
“That’s something that we’ve struggled with a little bit all year was getting that third guy to be a consistent scorer where Donta needs to be that guy. And again in the second half, he was great. He was much more aggressive. We got him some things downhill. But these guys are playing, they’re playing hard, they’re working hard. They have a great attitude. They’re just as frustrated as I am with the fact that we just can’t string together some [wins].”
Willard on the officiating vs. Wisconsin
“I’m gonna call ahead of the refs tomorrow at some point. I hope I get an explanation on how Deshawn [Harris-Smith]’s really should have been an and-one that get overturned and then he got called for an offensive foul on a bucket so it was really five points that we got taken away. I think we deserve an explanation of why those calls were called because it’s almost a curse being able to watch the video on film now because you get to see it real-time and it can put you in a bad mood real quick.”
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