As Lefty watches, Terps end skid
Coach honored pregame as UM holds off rally
COLLEGE PARK — One by one, the Maryland starters went over to the school’s special guest sitting courtside. One by one, the Terps men’s basketball team paid homage to Lefty Driesell, who had come Saturday to see a banner hung in his honor at a sold-out Xfinity Center.
Then Maryland did something Driesell’s team accomplished 348 times during his 17-year career with the Terps, something Mark Turgeon’s 21st-ranked team didn’t do in its previous two games. Avoiding the first three-game losing streak since Turgeon’s first season, Maryland won, beating undermanned Ohio State, 86-77.
The Terps were led by freshman guard Anthony Cowan, who scored 16 of his team-high 19 points in the second half, and freshman wing Kevin Huerter, who added 18. Both players hit huge end-of-shot clock 3-pointers late in the game after the Buckeyes cut what had been a 14-point deficit to five.
Cowan, who came into the game having
missed his past 11 3-pointers, made three of the four he tried, as well as all 10 of his free throws. Huerter was 7-for-12 from the field, and junior guard Jaylen Brantley, who added 11 points off the bench, also made three of four of his 3-pointers.
“That’s why you recruit so darn hard,” Turgeon said of his freshmen. “You recruit good players. Those shots –—our offense wasn’t great, their defense was good. To be honest with you, I thought they were both going in when they shot it.”
The victory helped Maryland (21-4, 9-3) regain a share of second place in the Big Ten and some momentum heading into road games at Northwestern on Wednesday night and Wisconsin next Sunday. Senior forward Marc Loving led Ohio State (15-11, 5-8) with 24 points.
The Terps looked like a different team from the outset than in Tuesday night’s defeat at Penn State, which followed a tough one-point loss at home Feb. 4 against then-No. 23 Purdue. Maryland took a 9-0 lead, was up 14 at half and never let the Buckeyes get close to taking the lead.
“Energy and preparation, we acted and looked like a team throughout the whole game, which was huge for us,” Turgeon said. “I could tell that our guys were dialed in and ready to play well and we did . ... We just couldn’t get rid of them. They just kept making jump shots.”
The Buckeyes hung in there despite playing without sophomore guard JaQuan Lyle, who left the team Thursday because of a family emergency in Indiana. Ohio State also lost both of its centers, Trevor Thompson and Micah Potter, on fouls in the second half.
The 3-pointer by Huerter, from around 25 feet, gave the Terps an 80-72 lead with a little over two minutes left. But junior guard Kam Williams (Mount Saint Joseph) followed with a 3-pointer and the Buckeyes had a chance to close the gap more when Trimble got blocked on a drive.
Loving, who had made his previous four shots, including back-toback 3-pointers, missed a 3-pointer and Cowan made his 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to push the lead back to nine. The Terps shot 12-for-29 on 3-pointers and 27-for-55 overall.
“I saw that there just wasn’t anything there. In that kind of environment, I didn’t want to get a shot-clock violation, I just wanted to make sure we got a shot up,” Cowan said of his 3-pointer, with 41 seconds to go. “I saw the defender bounce back a little, thinking I was going to drive and I just pulled up.”
Huerter said of the distance on his 3-pointer, “It was a really cool moment. [Jae’Sean] Tate was kind smiling too after I hit it.”
In congratulating Huerter on the postgame handshake line, Ohio State coach Thad Matta smiled as he passed Huerter and joked about from how far he launched it.
“Like I told No. 4 [Huerter], your last 3 there was an over-and-back, he was so far out when he hit it,” Matta said after his team lost to Maryland for the second time in 12 days. “Those guys stepped up. We wanted to make Cowan make shots and sure enough he did.”
The offense from Cowan and Huerter helped offset another tough offensive performance by junior guard Melo Trimble, who finished with 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting, including 1-for-6 on 3-pointers.
The big shots by Huerter and Cowan to preserve what had been a double-digit lead was in stark contrast to what happened in Maryland’s two home losses in the Big Ten this season, on New Year’s Day to Nebraska and last Saturday to thenNo. 23 Purdue.
It could give a lift to the young Terps as they head down the stretch, and it could help Trimble.
“I think it’s really important,” Huerter said. “Especially if teams are not keying on him as much, if guys are making shots, it takes a lot of pressure off him.” OHIO ST. (15-11): Loving 8-14 4-5 24, Tate 7-16 5-7 20, Thompson 4-8 3-3 11, C.Jackson 4-6 3-3 13, Williams 4-11 0-0 9, Wesson 0-0 0-0 0, Bell 0-0 0-0 0, Potter 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-56 15-18 77. MARYLAND (21-4): Dodd 1-1 1-3 3, J.Jackson 1-7 1-2 3, Cowan 3-5 10-10 19, Trimble 3-11 3-4 10, Huerter 7-12 1-2 18, Gill 2-4 1-3 6, Cekovsky 3-3 1-2 7, Bender 2-2 2-2 6, Brantley 4-7 0-0 11, Nickens 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 27-55 20-28 86. Halftime—Maryland 45-31. 3-point goals—Ohio St. 8-17 (Loving 4-8, C.Jackson 2-3, Tate 1-1, Williams 1-4, Potter 0-1), Maryland 12-29 (Cowan 3-4, Brantley 3-4, Huerter 3-8, Gill 1-1, Nickens 1-3, Trimble 1-6, J.Jackson 0-3). Fouled out— Thompson, Potter, Tate. Rebounds—Ohio St. 31 (Thompson 10), Maryland 27 (J.Jackson 7). Assists—Ohio St. 11 (C.Jackson, Tate 3), Maryland 19 (Cowan, Trimble 4). Total fouls—Ohio St. 25, Maryland 18. A—17,950 (17,950).