On an afternoon when a banner was lifted to the rafters to celebrate a living legend, two Terrapins also rose to new heights allowing Maryland to protect their house and beat the Ohio State Buckeyes, 86-77 before an ecstatic and packed crowd at Xfinity Center.
Before the game past Terp coaching great Lefty Driesell was honored with a banner raised to the rafters in his name. He then had a front row seat to watch freshmen Anthony Cowan and Kevin Huerter lead his former team to victory.
Maryland was coming off of their toughest part of the season with two straight losses to Purdue and Penn State and although they led the entire game with a double-digit lead at times, they let Ohio State stick around as they did in two crushing home losses to Nebraska and Purdue.
This time with their usual closer Melo Trimble stymied by the Buckeye’s defense and his own shooting woes (10 points on three for 11 shooting from the floor) it was two youngsters who sealed the win and stopping Maryland’s two game losing skid, allowing the Terps to sweep the season series against Ohio State while improving to (21-4, 9-3 Big Ten) good enough for a tie for second place with Purdue in conference play.
Although Maryland had a sizable lead for most of the second half, the Buckeyes were not going down without a fight and with leading scorer Marc Loving (24 points) sinking a three-pointer with 2:43 to go the score was 77-72 and still to close for comfort for Maryland fans.
With the outcome still in doubt, Maryland passed the ball around the perimeter looking for a good shot. With the shot clock winding down Huerter caught the pass from Cowan beyond the top of the key and calmly launched a three pointer. When it swished through the net a smile came across his face as he back pedaled back on defense, Maryland now up 80-72 with 2:09 to go.
The Buckeyes responded with their own three cutting the Terps lead to 80-75.
With Lefty, who started “Midnight Madness” and the crowd on the edge of their seats, Maryland again passed the ball around and from nearly the same spot as Huerter, Cowan shot a three, with an assist from Huerter, and when it went through the net he also displayed a smile, happy to give Maryland an 83-75 lead with 41 second to play in the contest.
Cowan and Huerter finished off the hard fought victory by sinking three of four free throws. Cowan ended the game as the Terp’s leading scorer with a career-tying 19 points including making 10 of 10 free throws. Huerter was right behind him with 18 points.
The other hero of the game was the Terrapin bench which outscored the Buckeyes bench 33-0.
Sixth-man Jaylen Brantley led the way with 11 points. Big man Michal Cekovsky added seven points and four rebounds and Ivan Bender and L.G. Gill finished with six points each.
Maryland, which seemed lethargic in their first road loss of the season to the Nittany Lions, stormed out to a 9-0 lead behind a Huerter 3. The bench helped propel the team to a commanding lead as they scored 20 first half points allowing Maryland to take a 45-31 lead at the break.
The Terps had nearly a double-digit lead for most of the second half but the Buckeyes would rally setting up the exciting finish.
Maryland shot 49 percent from the field including 12 of 29 from beyond the arc. They also had 19 assists to eight turnovers while making 20 of 28 free throws.
Meanwhile, Ohio State shot 48 percent from the field including going eight for 17 from three point range. They sank 15 of 18 shots from the charity stripe and out rebounded the Terps 32-30.
Ohio State’s Jae’Sean Tate finished the game with 20 points and Trevor Thompson added a team-high 10 rebounds and 11 points in a losing effort for the (15-11, 5-8) seventh place Buckeyes.
