The Wisconsin basketball team lost to Maryland on a last-second shot
Maryland Terrapins’ star guard Melo Trimble took over late in the second half and made the game-winning shot as the cold-shooting Wisconsin Badgers suffered another close loss 63-60 in Madison on Saturday.
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The Badgers came back from a 60-52 deficit with 1:20 left and went on an 8-0 run, capped off by Bronson Koenig‘s three to tie the game at 60 with 22.2 seconds left. Without calling timeout, Trimble dribbled down the court and launched a deep three in the face of Zak Showalter with 1.2 seconds left, and splashed it.
Trimble took control in the second half when Maryland needed him. After sitting closely behind Maryland for the majority of the second half, Wisconsin took a 47-46 lead with 10:01 left. Trimble went on a tear and scored Maryland’s next 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting to put the Terrapins ahead 56-48 with 6:50 left.
Betsided
Trimble made five of Maryland’s final six field goals, and on the one he did not score on, he found Diamond Stone inside for an easy dunk. Trimble finished with a game-high 21 points and five assists as Maryland improved to 15-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten.
While Trimble was dominating the second half, the Badgers’ offense went cold and went through two extended field-goal droughts. Wisconsin did not make a field goal for 4 minutes, 11 seconds until Showalter’s steal and layup cut the lead to 56-50 with 5:50 left. After Showalter’s score, the Badgers did not make shot from the field for the next 4 minutes, 31 seconds before a driving layup from Showalter.
Showalter cut the lead to 60-57 with a 3-pointer with 1:05 left, followed by another three from Koenig. Following Trimble’s late-game 3-pointer, Nigel Hayes‘ heave was short at the buzzer, and Wisconsin missed another opportunity for a big win against third-ranked Maryland.
The Badgers fell to 9-8 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten play. Five of the Badgers’ defeats have been lost by one possession.
Aside from Trimble’s second-half serge, Wisconsin’s offense went cold after halftime. The Badgers shot 32.4 percent in the second half and finished with a 38.7 field-goal percentage.
After scoring 14 of his team-leading 17 points in the first half, Hayes shot shot 1 of 8 after halftime. Koenig finished with 13 points on 4 of 12 shooting with six rebounds, three assists and one turnover.
Ethan Happ scored 16 points on 8 of 14 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds for his sixth double double of the year and also added three steals. Happ was aggressive and attacking in the post but did not take a shot for the final 12 minutes, 11 seconds of the game.
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Showalter scored nine points on 4 of 6 shooting. Alex Illikainen was the only player to score off the bench with five points. Vitto Brown went scoreless for the Badgers.
The Badgers finished 5 of 11 from the free-throw line, while Maryland made 9 of its 12 attempts.
Wisconsin took its first lead at 12-11 with 12:08 left in the first half with Happ layup, but Maryland went on a 7-0 run and made its next seven shots to open up a 26-19 for its largest lead of the first half.
The Badgers cut the lead 26-25 with another layup from Happ, but responded with five consecutive made five straight field goals to make it a 36-30 game. Hayes knocked down a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to four to end the first half trailing 36-32.
The Wisconsin basketball team will travel to play the Northwestern Wildcats on Tuesday night in Evanston.
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