Less than an hour after Wisconsin (3-9 Big Ten, 10-15 overall) dropped its third game of the week, injured sophomore point guard D’Mitrik Trice took to Twitter with a message for UW’s fan base. “Stick with us!” he wrote following the Badgers’ 68-63 loss to Maryland.
Stick with us!
— D'Mitrik Trice (@DMitrikTrice0) February 4, 2018
Wisconsin’s three-game conference week certainly did not go as UW’s coaches and players planned. It opened last Monday with the Badgers losing a double-digit lead with ten minutes to play against Nebraska. Thursday evening, an early 18-1 deficit less than six minutes into the game put Wisconsin in catch-up mode almost instantly and gave UW a deficit it could not recover from. Sunday, in the Badgers’ third loss of the week, Wisconsin hung tough with the Maryland Terrapins (5-7, 16-9), but, much like in many of its early season non-conference struggles, Wisconsin couldn’t execute down the stretch as it fell yet again.
Redshirt junior forward Ethan Happ led the Badgers with 18 points and nine rebounds, but the Terrapins’ backcourt of Anthony Cowan and Kevin Huerter combined for 42 points, including ten points in the final 3:36 of the game to hold off a late-UW push.
Early on, while Wisconsin shot four airballs in the first 12 minutes of the game, it still led 18-13 just over 12 minutes into the contest. Maryland slowly chipped away at the Badgers’ lead and took only its second lead of the half at the 5:14 mark of the period. Wisconsin didn’t score in the final four-plus minutes of the half as Maryland finished the period on an 11-0 run to head into the locker room up 33-23.
Happ and the Badges mustered an early second half run and led just over halfway through the period. The teams traded baskets for much of the half before a 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Aleem Ford, his fourth of the game, tied the game at 60 with just under 2:40 to play.
UW went cold after Ford’s clutch 3-pointer, though, as the Terrapins led by four points after Huerter nailed a bank-shot with 27 seconds to play. Wisconsin freshman point guard Brad Davison buried a 3-pointer with just over 10 seconds to play, but Maryland knocked down four late free throws to sink the Badgers.
Maryland finished the game 18-of-19 from the free throw line and after a sub-par first half shooting the basketball, shot nearly 50 percent from the field.
Freshman forward Nate Reuvers scored 13 points and both Ford and Davison added 12, but UW received zero points from its bench and couldn’t make enough shots down the stretch. The Badgers held their own for much of the contest, but struggled late yet again to drop its fifth straight game and eight in its last nine tries.
Trice watched from the end of the bench. His return this season is becoming increasingly unlikely as he continues to recover from foot surgery.
The future of the program might still be bright, but its present is rather dreary.
