Late into Maryland men’s basketball’s dismal game in Wisconsin, opposing head coach Greg Gard reached all the way to the bottom of his bench.
Gard’s son, Isaac, got into the game having scored just three baskets in his career. As a senior playing in his final home game, the crowd was desperate to see the younger Gard play.
He entered, and the Badgers ran two consecutive plays targeting Isaac Gard. On the second, he squared up Aleks Alston and launched a deep 3-pointer. When it landed, the raucous Kohl
Center crowd lost its mind.
In its penultimate game of the regular season, Maryland could not find a spark. The Terps slumped to a 78-45 defeat in Madison, scoring their fewest points of the season.
After Maryland’s home loss to Rutgers, visiting head coach Steve Pikiell praised his team’s defensive effort, asserting that the 19 turnovers his team faced “[had] to be a season high” for the Terps.
It was not. Turnovers have plagued Maryland — it averages 12.6 per game and has had more than 15 in seven games this season.
Going into a game against a turnover-averse Wisconsin team, Maryland had to limit its mistakes. And it did. The Terps committed just 10 turnovers against Wisconsin.
But all that did was keep the clock running.
Through the first eight minutes, the teams shot a combined 6-of-26 from the field. Both sides had streaks of seven or more shots missed.
With Andre Mills and Solomon Washington combining for four points in the first half, an unlikely contributor emerged in center Collin Metcalf. He was arguably Maryland’s best player of the first half, snagging five offensive rebounds and nailing two put-back baskets. Those four points made him the Terps’ second-highest scorer before the break.
Its leader, Elijah Saunders, ripped off three 3-pointers for the Terps, working in motion and helping ease some pressure on the struggling offense. No other Maryland player made a 3-pointer in the first half.
The Terps couldn’t put together a sustained offensive effort, either. Saunders’ second 3-pointer was followed by a layup from Coit; that was the only time Maryland scored consecutive baskets.
On the other end, Wisconsin guard Braeden Carrington was electric. After scoring 32 points against the Washington Huskies on Saturday, Carrington carried his form into the game against Maryland, hitting five of eight shots before the break. Another banked-in 3-point heave was denied by the halftime buzzer, with the guard running roughshod over his primary defender, Diggy Coit.
Coming out of the half, Guillermo Del Pino started over Mills. The Spaniard repaid the faith instantly, draining a 3-pointer over his 6-foot-10 defender as the shot clock expired to open the second-half scoring.
From there, the Badgers were a whirlwind. Wisconsin scored the next 11 points, beating Maryland at every level on the streak and putting the game thoroughly out of reach.
With much of the second half reduced to garbage time, little changed. Del Pino found the confidence to take eight shots, but he only made two. Andre Mills chipped in with a few late 3-pointers, but Maryland couldn’t find a defensive stop, even when the bottom of the bench entered the game.
Three things to know
1. Free throw profligacy. Wisconsin’s clean game extended to fouling. The Badgers committed just 11 fouls, and they sent Maryland to the line for just five free throw attempts. To make matters worse, Washington missed both his free throws, and Alston also missed one. The Terps made just two of five shots from the stripe.
2. Defensive pressure nonexistent. Wisconsin committed three turnovers against Maryland. The Badgers entered the game averaging 9.3 turnovers per game and had logged a season-low four turnovers twice on the year.
3. Cannot keep it close. The Terps had three 30-point losses across their first 11 seasons as members of the Big Ten. They now have five in the first season of Buzz Williams basketball.
