Maryland’s annual gold rush lived up to the hype to say the least. Terp nation, Marty Maw, and Scott Van Pelt, and five-star Maryland football commit and number one ranked player in the nation, Zion Elee, were treated a show as Kevin Willard’s squad took down 17th-ranked Wisconsin 76-58.
All five starters finished in double figures while Derik Queen posted his sixth double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Maryland picked up its third ranked win of the season.
Steven Crowl and JuJu Reese exchanged hook shots down low to start off the scoring, but Maryland struggled to find the bottom of the net early in the first half going 3-of-10 from the floor to start off.
Willard went to his bench after the first media timeout to try and kickstart the offense, bringing in Jay Young, Deshawn Harris-Smith, and Tafara Gapare. The variety of rotations however were unable to ignite a hot stretch for Maryland, who shot just under 29% through the 12 minutes of play. They had their chances late in the first half to string together a few runs but whiffed on several layup attempts that made it a challenge to garner any momentum.
Reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Week Derik Queen especially struggled to get going and went into the locker room looking for an answer after only one make on eight attempts from the floor as the buzzer sounded to end the first half. Meanwhile, reigning Naismith and AP Player of the Week, Juju Reese, was the saving grace for the Terps offensively with 9 first-half points.
But what the Terps lacked on one end of the floor they made up for with defensive intensity. Wisconsin knocked down shots early but struggled to take care of the basketball, dishing eight turnovers to Maryland’s four in the first half. The Badgers went ice cold after hot start shooting, going 2 for 11 from the floor to end the half including being shut out in the final 3:33 of the half. Closing out in the first half defensively has been a focal point for Willard and his players as he alluded to in the post-game press conference.
“These guys have talked a lot about – and they talk as a group – they talked a lot about in our losses, kind of what our Achilles heel has been, and a lot of it has been let teams go on runs towards the end of the first half and not getting stops towards the second half. So it's kind of fun as a group. They really do talk about it in huddles and in practice about getting better and just focusing on certain things. So as a unit and a group, I think they've understood that, especially in this conference, that you can't give up six-point runs like we did to Oregon in the second in the first half. We gave up an eight-point run middle of the second half. So just trying to limit runs.”
Despite the offensive woes, their lockdown defense set the tone for the Terps and gave Maryland a 32-31 lead to end the half.
The guns were blazing for Wisconsin to start the second half. The Badgers went on an 11-4 run out of the gate including a 9-0 run that gave the Badgers a 42-36 lead. Willard called a timeout 16:32 remaining to ease what had the makings of a scorching stretch.
Willard’s words of wisdom did the trick, and a completely different team came out of the huddle. The offense led by Rodney Rice went on a 21-8 run heading into the media timeout taken at 6:57 left in the ball game. At this point, after two massive threes from Rice and a plethora of great shooting, eardrums were actively bursting as the Xfinity Center was roaring as loud as it has all season.
From there, the route was on in College Park. The Terps shot 7/11 from downtown in the second half, an incredible mark for Willard’s squad who he believes really settled into their groove during this remarkable run.
“We talked at halftime just, we got a lot of good looks in the first half, but we were just kind of again, I think we were a little either amped up or not amped up enough. And I thought
Selton's three and Deshawn’s three were huge. You know, kind of just, we got good looks.
But I think, you know, Selt hit a couple. I think Selt hit the first one and a half then he hit
one, we were down six to cut it to three. Having the right guy shoot [them] always helps.”
The offensive output in total was more of the same with 70 of the 76 points coming from the starting five, a trend that has carried over from last week with each starter in double-digit scoring figures.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Rodney Rice led the way with 16 points each, and both came alive in the second scoring a combined 21 points on a combined 6-10 from the field and four threes. Juju Reese continued his hot stretch with 14 points and 9 rebounds to complement Queen’s double-double of 12 and 12 albeit struggling from the floor.
Selton Miguel is the lone remainder in the starting lineup and he gave everything you could ask out a three and D wing player, finishing with 12 points by way of a 4-5 evening from distance. He was efficient, confident and an essential cog in the Terps machine this evening.
Wisconsin’s top two leading scorers John Tonje and John Blackwell both got into a bit of foul trouble in the first half drawing two whistles each. Blackwell didn’t crack the sore column in the 1st half while Tonje still managed to be effective, leading the Badgers with 11 first half points. Tonje continued to find his groove the rest of the way finishing with a game-high 23 points, while Blackwell was able to score ten second-half points, but it was too-little too-late for the Badgers.
One note that the stat sheet wasn’t able track was the madhouse that was the X-Finity center on Wednesday night. The sold out arena sounded every bit of the 17,950 that were shoulder-to-shoulder, and the student section disregarded all concern for hearing damage which was a pleasure to see unfold.
“I think more than anything, the crowd was great because they gave us an emotional lift,” Willard said. “I mean, coming off the Indiana win and really the two road wins, we've been on the road in January for like 15, 16 days. So to come home to a great crowd and play against a really good team and play well was good.”
Maryland sits alone in fourth place in the Big Ten and control their destiny in terms of clinching the double-bye in the Big Ten tournament as the top four seeds in the conference are rewarded. They will get the rest of the week off from game action while they play the waiting game to see whether they become ranked for the first time this season. Their next game is Thursday, February 6 when they travel to Columbus looking for a season-sweep of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Meanwhile, Wisconsin will head back to Madison to reboot their batteries before they head back on the road to Evanston to face off against Northwestern on Saturday night.
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