With less than two minutes to play against men’s basketball in Maryland, Wisconsin turned to point guard D’Mitrik Trice to try to reduce his three-point deficit at his home. Trice tried to go to the edge, but was heavily defended by Maryland’s senior guard, Darryl Morsell, and the fault fell to the hands of second-year striker Donta Scott.
With the opportunity to put his team in five, Scott took it upon himself to eliminate this one. After receiving a pass from Aaron Wiggins as a double pair, Scott pretended that a defender closed in and dived towards the edge. Despite three defenders converging on him, the second year rose above all else and launched a monstrous two-handed slam, giving Maryland a five-point cushion with 57 seconds remaining.
Despite staying close until the final bell, Maryland practically achieved a frustrating 70-64 victory over No. 6 Badgers from there for its first victory over a top-10 team since defeating No. 3 Iowa on January 28, 2016.
Entering the competition as underdogs of 9.5 points, the Terps entered the field in Madison looking to prove their worth against a team with which they shared the Big Ten title last season. The Badgers maintained their success in 2020-21, but Maryland could not say the same, with a 0-2 start to the conference with an overall record of 5-3.
But the Terps confidently went into a close battle, with Monday night’s draw tied six times, with 10 leadership changes.
With the Badgers launching four snipers from three different points averaging over 40% per game to start the action, the Terps were aggressive in their defensive perimeter efforts, linking all screens to force Wisconsin to a 1 to 6 start in the field and 0 to 2 beyond the arc.
And even when each side began to dive into their respective banks, Maryland’s defense remained intact on all three levels. Chol Marial, deftly defending himself against the big men duo focused on Purdue’s scoring three days earlier, faced a difficult task to stop players like Badgers Nate Reuvers and Tyler Wahl.
Marial was once again up to the challenge, giving in sometimes on the crossbar, but returning everything that his opponents threw up on the edge. Almost five minutes after the start of Monday’s competition, Marial was pushed back by striker Badger Micah Potter to the bottom block. But as soon as he went to the baby’s hook, Marial stood up and hit the tip of his finger in an attempted shot.
In possession of the next ball, Marial received a pass on the side and immediately fired, dropping two longs to put Maryland 8-4 ahead at the 14:36 mark and put his teammates on their side standing.
Potter, Wisconsin’s top scorer, started the game by throwing 1 out of 5 from the field, struggling to get to their positions thanks to Maryland’s defensive intensity.
But Marial soon suffered two personal fouls, sending him to the bench for the rest of the time to play just three minutes in the opening period.
The fouls proved to be a problem for Maryland, with Hakim Hart and Jairus Hamilton also picking up a pair each to give coach Mark Turgeon a break to beat them back in the game. Committing fouls near and far from the edge in the first half, Maryland allowed the Badgers (a team that kicks 77% of the free-throw line) to parade for the charity strip.
However, the Badgers were strangely unable to make Terps call, making it just eight of 21 attempts. They finished the contest 24-to-55 from the ground.
Offensively, the Terps used a balanced attack each time on the ground, moving the ball quickly around the ground to force constant rotations of the badger’s defense. Whether flying from the depths or attacking, Maryland kept pace with Wisconsin on the scoreboard from the start, going against the conference’s No. 1 defense. Still, both teams hit only 37% of the field in the first.
If Maryland intended to keep this competitive, it would not do so without the help of Darryl Morsell. The senior guard has suffered his share of difficulties to score so far this season, including last Friday’s defeat, in which he had the chance to tie the game in the second final on the free throw line, but came out empty.
Returning to the starting lineup in Tuesday’s competition, Morsell began to assert himself at the end of the first half. With just under five minutes left, sophomore striker Donta Scott dived took his defender over the edge of the perimeter, forcing Wisconsin to spin and play defense aid. With Morsell left open in the corner, the senior received the pass and hit corner three.
At the next inauguration, he decided to do it himself. He pushed his man away from the dribble, diving down the track as Wisconsin once again spun. But Morsell did not allow the contact to deny it, rising over his defender in the two-handed slam to reduce Maryland’s deficit to just one point with 3:37 remaining.
But Morsell’s mini-race would prove to be the last of Maryland’s first-half goals, missing a field goal in the last three minutes of the first half to be behind the Badgers 28-24.
Maryland’s attack continued unmarked until the 16:14 mark of the second half, with eleven consecutive missed field shots, allowing Wisconsin to make a 20-9 run and increase its lead to eight points – the highest in the game.
But as it happened in the last game whenever the deficit started to widen, Maryland used its defense to generate some momentum. Leaving a 3-2 zone just over five minutes before the break, junior guard Aaron Wiggins got his hands on the passing line and came up with a live steal from the top of the key, stopping for an easy dunk, allowing Terps to set up in your press.
A positive Hamilton score on the next trip cut the lead to four, with a flaw and a long rebound in the next Wisconsin possession, allowing Donta Scott to reach the rim in the transition to lay-in to cut led him to two and crowned one series of 8-0 with 13:31 left.
Although the Badgers continued to shoot on the other end of the line, Maryland never ceased its physical mark of basketball. The 2-1-2 pressure across the court made it difficult for Wisconsin guards to get the ball to the ground, forcing a 10-second violation that energized Turgeon on the touchline.
Much of Maryland’s attack in the second half depended on their guard game, with junior point guard Eric Ayala starting to warm up. Despite starting the 0-to-3 game with a three-point streak, Ayala scored 17 points in the second half, including a triple with a little more to put Terps ahead 48-45 like the road-upset dream. began to formulate.
The rest of the Terps were shooting unconscious after the previous nightmare stretch, making it 13 of their next 15 field goal attempts in the stretch after the 0-for-11 started. Ayala continued to feel on the offensive side, ending up contacting one and one to put Maryland ahead 57-52 with 4:48 remaining.
The Terps turned to Scott to end things at both ends of the track, finally getting the offensive execution needed to end a game while achieving their first victory in Madison since 2016.
Three things to know
1 Maryland came up with blocks – In a game that depended heavily on defense, the Terps appeared in the painting, winning the battle 5-1. Maryland has failed to pass five blocks in a game in its last three games, but Morsell’s three strokes on his own have pushed the team to the limit. Wiggins and Marial each added their own, while the Badgers struggled to stop Maryland scorers from painting all night.
two Micah Potter was kept under control. After being prevented in the early stages, the 1.80 meter old man was never really able to proceed. He finished with four points out of 2 out of 8 shots and 0 out of 2 in the back,
3 – The Terps filmed much better than recent shows. The Terps hit just 41% of the ground in their last four games, dropping to 34.4% in their loss to Rutgers on December 14. In a game that took off in the second half on Monday night, Maryland got into a shootout with the badgers in the final stretch, ending the game with 50% hits. Despite starting with a 37% finish at halftime, a massive second half propelled the Terps to victory by hitting 16 of the 25 strokes in the period.