To accomplish that, the second-ranked Terrapins will have to stop surging Wisconsin on Saturday night while extending their school-record home win streak.
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UW had 26 turnovers in his first game, an 84-79 victory over UW-Green Bay, and lost four of its first five Big Ten games, by a combined 15 points.
So, college basketball fans knew the Wisconsin-Maryland game Saturday night would be intense.
Vitto Brown lead the Badgers with 21 points after failing to score any in the loss last month in Madison.
Maryland led by eight with 1:27 to go but needed Melo Trimble’s 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left for a 63-60 road victory.
Rasheed Sulaimon led Maryland (22-3, 10-2) with 17 points.
Redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ and redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter each headed to the bench with four fouls early in the second half, leaving the Badgers without two of their starters for a significant stretch as the Terrapins clawed their way back within striking distance.
Though Trimble finished with 10 points, he went 1 of 14 from the field and scored eight points from the free-throw line.
The 2015-16 Wisconsin Badgers are not the 2014-15 Wisconsin Badgers.
Postgame, coaches Mark Turgeon and Greg Gard said they didn’t have a clear view of the incident. Even reserve guard Jaylen Brantley, who earned the trust of the coaching staff against Bowie State, helped Maryland in their comeback efforts with two layups.
The Terrapins trailed 36-21 at halftime after making only one field goal over the final 13 1/2 minutes of the half – a 3-pointer by Sulaimon that halted a 23-2 run. “I couldn’t be prouder to call myself their coach”.
Stone and Wisconsin forward Charlie Thomas (River Hill) were issued matching technical fouls after a video review.
While getting up from the floor under the basket, Stone appeared to intentionally shove Brown’s face onto the court. “I don’t think it’s anything different than what we’ve done before, but we just played better tonight”.
Here is a breakdown of the teams that could still win a share of the title and some of the games and trends to look for as everyone marches towards Selection Sunday.
The Badgers held a massive 20-4 advantage in second-chance points, grabbing 13 offensive rebounds and winning the overall rebounding battle, 40-30. Wisconsin’s wins aren’t exactly an impressive list, as their road wins were over IL and Penn State.
From a team standpoint, the pre-season favorite Maryland continues to stick towards the top of the standings, while Michigan State, another team predicted to be towards the top of the conference, has suffered from inconsistency and injuries.
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No. 2 Maryland faces another tough challenge at home today when it hosts Wisconsin at 6:30PM ET on ESPN.
