This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/maryland-falls-to-indiana-in-regular-season-finale-80-62/2016/03/06/2beba28c-e3e4-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Maryland falls to Indiana in regular season finale, 80-62 Maryland falls to Indiana in regular season finale, 80-62
(about 1 hour later)
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Maryland ’s players stood together in a darkened Assembly Hall, cranked their heads and watched a tribute video to the Big Ten champion Indiana Hoosiers before Sunday’s game. Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon couldn’t watch. Just four months ago, his team was picked as the overwhelming favorite to take the league crown, but a late-season slump killed any chance for the Terrapins to reach that checkpoint. BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Maryland’s players stood together in a darkened Assembly Hall, cranked their heads and watched a video tribute to the Big Ten champion Indiana Hoosiers before Sunday’s game. Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon hardly looked at the big screen. Just four months ago, his team was picked as the overwhelming favorite to take the league crown, but a late-season slump killed any chance for the Terrapins to reach that checkpoint.
And instead of sending a reminder to their opponent and the rest of the league on Sunday, Maryland continued to slide in a 80-62 loss to the Hoosiers, undone by another ugly first-half stretch. The Hoosiers closed the first half on a 23-6 run and never looked back, gaining further momentum as the No. 1 seed entering this week’s Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. And instead of sending a reminder to their opponent and the rest of the conference in the regular season finale on Sunday, Maryland continued to slide in an 80-62 loss to the Hoosiers, undone by a another performance that was pockmarked with fading offense and dismal transition defense. The Terrapins simply couldn’t keep up with Indiana’s ballistic pace, which produced 16 fast-break points and led to a number of scoring bursts throughout the afternoon. The Hoosiers (25-6, 15-3 Big Ten) closed the first half on a 23-6 run and never looked back, gaining further momentum as the No. 1 seed entering this week’s Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.
Maryland, meanwhile, will have four days to pick up the pieces before the postseason officially begins on Friday. The bright side? The Terrapins have locked up a top-four seed and will have a double bye. But after closing the regular season with four losses in the final six games, Maryland is running out of time to pull out of its late-season slog. “We played a great team today,” Turgeon said, “that is playing with a lot of confidence.”
It continued even after a promising start on Sunday afternoon. Maryland looked motivated by the pageantry of senior day at Assembly Hall, and all five starters had scored within the first seven minutes to open up a 18-12 lead. But Indiana, which entered Sunday’s game both the league’s highest scoring team (82.6 points per game) and its most accurate (50.6 percent), quickly went on the offensive. The Hoosiers hit five of their first eight three-pointers, taking control of the game as Maryland watched its offense devolve into a stagnant mess. [Bracketology: How the NCAA tournament field looks right now]
Sophomore Melo Trimble finished with 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting, while freshman center Diamond Stone added 12 points and seven rebounds for Maryland, which shot 41 percent from the field and hit just 8 of 24 from beyond the arc. Maryland (24-7, 12-6) will have four days off to pick up the pieces before its postseason officially begins on Friday. The bright side? The Terrapins have locked up a top-four seed and will have a double-bye into the quarterfinals. But after closing the regular season with four losses in the final six games, Turgeon’s team is running out of time to pull out of its late-season slog.
Turgeon had hinted that he would play small-ball at times to keep pace with Indiana’s run-and-gun style, but even as he tinkered with his personnel, his team could never find a proper rhythm after the first 10 minutes. Maryland made just two field goals over the final 13 minutes 1 second of the first half, both on long jumpers from Trimble. “I felt like we were ready for this game. We just came up short,” said sophomore guard Melo Trimble, who finished with 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting. “We just came up short.”
Troy Williams, who finished with 23 points, hit a pull-up three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Hoosiers a 41-28 halftime lead. Senior guard Yogi Ferrell added 17 for Indiana, which shot 51 percent from the field. It continued even after a promising start on Sunday afternoon. Maryland looked motivated by the pageantry of senior day at Assembly Hall, and all five starters had scored within the first seven minutes to open up an 18-12 lead. But Indiana, which is both the league’s highest scoring team (82.7 points per game) and its most accurate (50.2 percent field goal shooting), quickly went on the offensive. The Hoosiers hit five of their first eight three-pointers, tiring out Maryland with its run-and-gun pace.
The frustration was visible. Rasheed Sulaimon stomped his feet after Trimble missed him on a potential three-point attempt. Junior Damonte Dodd looked puzzled after his wide open dunk ricocheted off the rim early in the second half. Turgeon turned to the score table and punched air after watching Williams beat his team in transition on consecutive possession to open up an 80-62 lead after Maryland had cut its deficit to nine. Turgeon had hinted that he would play small-ball at times Sunday, and although he tinkered with his personnel for stretches, his team could never find a proper rhythm after the first 10 minutes. Maryland made just three field goals over the final 13 minutes 1 second of the first half.
Junior forward Robert Carter (14 points) cut it to 60-50 with 9:18 remaining on consecutive baskets, which allowed Maryland to apply its full-court press. The pressure had allowed the Terrapins to build rallies at certain points over the first 30 games — including in a frantic comeback attempt in the final minutes at Purdue two weeks ago — but Indiana was fully prepared for the look. After Carter’s second hook had fallen in, the Hoosiers broke the press within a matter of seconds to set up a wide open three-pointer by Nick Zeisloft to extend the lead back to 13. Junior forward Troy Williams, who finished with 23 points, hit a pull-up three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Hoosiers a 41-28 halftime lead. Senior guard Yogi Ferrell added 17 points for Indiana, which shot 51 percent from the field.
Turgeon just shook his head and walked back to the bench at that point, screaming at himself. He was forced to take a timeout after Assembly Hall exploded following the most bizarre play of the day. After Maryland had cut the lead to 64-55 on a Jaylen Brantley three-pointer, it had a chance to further cut into the lead on the following possession — but Trimble drove the lane and made an ill-advised pass near his bench. “Every shot for them is a potential momentum swing,” Maryland guard Rasheed Sulaimon said.
Zeisloft came up the loose ball, and as he was falling into Maryland’s benched, he heaved the ball as hard as could behind his head. It traveled nearly 50 feet toward and was scooped out of mid-air by forward Juwan Morgan, who finished with a circus layup to push the lead back to double digits. There were promising aspects of this performance. Maryland took seven more shots, won the rebounding battle 32-31 and had 14 second-chance points — but it shot just eight free throws, while Indiana hit 20 of 25 from the line. And each offensive push seemed to be spoiled by an inability to get back in transition. The most demoralizing example came early in the second half, after junior forward Robert Carter Jr. (14 points, seven rebounds) helped cut the lead to nine with a layup. Williams beat the entire Maryland team up the left side of the court for a dunk and a free throw, then added an acrobatic up-and-under layup following a Maryland miss on the ensuing possession. Turgeon just turned to the scorer’s table and started punching air.
“We were just so focused on crashing the offensive boards,” Trimble said. “We didn’t do too good of a job communicating on defense, and it showed.”
Carter cut the deficit to 60-50 with 9:18 remaining, which allowed Maryland to apply its full-court press. The pressure had allowed the Terrapins to build rallies at certain points over the first 30 games — including in a frantic comeback attempt in the final minutes at Purdue eight days earlier — but Indiana was fully prepared for the look. After Carter’s basket, the Hoosiers broke the press within a matter of seconds to set up a wide-open three-pointer by Nick Zeisloft to extend the lead back to 13.
Turgeon shook his head and walked back to the bench at that point, screaming at himself. He was forced to take a timeout after the crowd at Assembly Hall erupted following the most bizarre play of the day. Maryland trailed 66-55 when Trimble drove the lane and made an ill-advised pass near his bench.
Zeisloft came up with the loose ball, and as he was falling into Maryland’s bench he heaved the ball as hard as could behind his head. It traveled nearly 50 feet and was grabbed by forward Juwan Morgan, who finished with a circus layup to push Indiana’s lead back to 13.
The frustration was visible on the court throughout the second half. Sulaimon stomped his feet after Trimble missed him on a potential three-point attempt. Junior Damonte Dodd looked puzzled after his wide-open dunk ricocheted off the rim early in the second half. Trimble and Carter both looked exhausted later in the second half after Ferrell snuck up and nearly stole their inbound pass. Assembly Hall celebrated by chanting the senior’s name.
“The Big Ten regular season didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. We had a tough road schedule and we didn’t handle it well. We competed in every game,” Turgeon said. “Except for today, I thought we competed. It just wasn’t meant to be.”