Half helps Wisconsin Badgers past No. 2 Maryland Terps

Since joining the Big Ten in 2014, No. 2 Maryland entered Saturday’s clash against Wisconsin 15-0 at home in conference play.

The Badgers scored 17 straight points at one point in the first half after Maryland had built a seven-point lead.

Layman also managed to drive on the baseline and drop off a handsome pass to Stone for the dunk to cut the Wisconsin lead to 45-39 with 10:45 remaining in the second half. On the road. On their way to snapping Maryland’s 27-game winning streak at Xfinity Center – and it didn’t matter that Diamond Stone, a projected lottery pick in June’s NBA Draft, was allowed to stay in the game after he maybe should’ve been ejected from the game for pushing Vitto Brown’s head into the court.

The Terrapins made a decent run at digging out of the 16-point hole, but Wisconsin was simply too good to falter – even with starters Zak Showalter and Ethan Happ on the bench with four fouls. The Badgers are winning right now early in the second half, but something that occurred in the first half had many Wisco fans up in arms.

That resulted in Wisconsin started the game on a 7-2 run, weathering a 12-0 run and scoring the next 17 points with a combination of post touches, perimeter shots and free throws to take control of the game, especially with its defense holding Maryland without a point for 8:22 and without a field goal for 10:51.

“We had a one-on-one talk”, Sulaimon said. Meanwhile, Maryland point guard and Wooden Award candidate Melo Trimble missed 13 of 14 shots as the Terrapins shot only 40 percent from the field with only five made three-pointers. “We’re just trying to make sure that we get better each and every game”. Overall, six teams are within two games of first place.

Added Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon: “We lost the game in the last 10 minutes of the first half. I am extremely proud of our guys”, said Wisconsin coach Greg Gard, now 9-4 since Bo Ryan retired in December.

“They’ve grown immensely. I couldn’t be prouder to call myself their coach”. “We’ve had a good year”, Turgeon said. “It was just like another game to me, so it felt good”. That’s what we deemed it. We say that was a flagrant one contact foul.

Brown’s teammates immediately went after Stone and both Stone and Wisconsin’s Charlie Thomas were assessed technical fouls on the play.

Wisconsin was one of the first four teams out in ESPN NCAA tournament guru Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket projection.

Saint Mary’s 68, Loyola Marymount 62: Calvin Hermanson scored 16 points, and the Gaels (20-4, 11-3 West Coast Conference) held off the Lions (11-15, 4-11) after leading by as many as 20 points in Moraga. Sulaimon has reached double figures in five of his last six games.

The Maryland Terrapins are now the second ranked team in the country and are coming off an easy 93-62 win over Bowie State University.

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.