The Wisconsin Badgers beat the 2nd-ranked Maryland Terrapins 70-57, snapping their school-record 27 game home winning streak at a disappointed Xfinity Center.
This was also the Terps first Big Ten loss at home since joining the conference last year. They had been riding a five game winning streak including home victories over both Purdue and Bowie State.
The loss also knocked the Terrapins out of a three-way tie for first in the conference.
Maryland got off to a good start, leading 14-7 in the first half and then their offense went into a deep freeze. They went over eight minutes in the first half without scoring and never recovered.
With the score 35-19 with 1:37 to go in the half the Terrapins were behind by 16 points, their largest deficit of the season.
From the 13:32 mark of the first half the Badgers went on a 29-7 run and took a 36-21 lead at the break, the Terrapins largest halftime deficit of the season.
To their credit, Maryland came storming back in the second half behind a full court press, and their 18-9 run cut the lead to 45-39 with 10:48 to go.
But the Badgers had all the answers in this game and just would not be denied. A three-pointer by Bronson Koenig gave them a 51-41 lead with 8:11 to play in the game.
For the Terrapins, their star and leader Melo Trimble, who would normally come to the rescue in games like this, just could not find his shooting touch. He finished the game 1-14 from the field while scoring 10 points. He also had six assist, four rebound and two steals.
The Badgers were led in scoring by Vitto Brown who scored 21 points and snagged seven rebounds for a team that had just won their seventh straight game.
Koenig added 16 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Badgers who improved to fifth place in the conference at (16-9, 8-4 Big Ten).
The Terps trailed the entire second half and closed the margin to 56-48 with 4:18 to go on a Jake Layman 3-pointer but that was a close as the Terrapins would get to completing the comeback.
Brown responded for the Badgers with his own three-pointer to push the lead to 59-48 with 3:48 to go.
Wisconsin out rebounded the Terps 40 to 30 and were able to maintain a near double-digit lead for most of the second half by going 12 for 26 from three-point range.
Neither team shot well from the floor with the Badgers making 41 percent of their shots and the Terps going 20 for 50 from the field including 5 for 14 from long distance.
The Terps shooting woes continued at the free throw line where they were 12 for 22. Wisconsin shot 12 for 18 from the charity stripe.
The Terps were led by Rasheed Sulaimon who scored 17 points. Layman and freshman Diamond Stone chipped in with 10 points each. Stone also had four blocked shots. Robert Carter Jr. had a team-high eight rebounds and scored six points in a losing effort for the Big Ten’s second place (22-4, 10-3) Terrapins.
