Maryland men’s basketball entered its final game of an arduous regular season with little left to fight for.
A shot at an at-large NCAA tournament bid was all but eliminated weeks — if not months — ago. But the fight for seeding in the Big Ten tournament remained. With a favorable draw, the Terps could’ve opened up the possibility of a deep tournament run, tasked with winning five straight games to get into the Big Dance.
WIth the 85-69 loss to Penn State Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center, Maryland claimed the 12-seed in the upcoming conference tournament. The possibility of a deep run will be tough.
The Terps will play Rutgers, a top-five defense in the nation, in the first round on Wednesday, before matching up with Wisconsin and then Nebraska if they advance. That’s a far tougher slate than Michigan, Iowa and Northwestern, the three teams they would’ve faced had they earned the 11-seed.
Maryland forward Julian Reese, who was listed as questionable entering Sunday’s contest, didn’t play. After scoring 25 points and 13 rebounds in the teams’ first matchup, the junior’s absence was felt. Penn State forward Qudus Wahab dominated on the interior with 19 points and 15 rebounds, helping the Nittany Lions out-rebound the Terps 47-26.
Mady Traore started in Reese’s place, seeing action the first five minutes before playing sparingly the rest of the game. Traore struggled against the bigger Wahab and was outmuscled on the interior. Caelum Swanton-Rodger saw the bulk of the big man minutes, putting forth a respectable effort in 22 minutes. The sophomore scored five points and corralled three rebounds before fouling out with 3:16 left.
The Terps jacked up 27 3-pointers, six more than their season average, but failed to convert on the extra attempts. They finished the contest just 25.9 percent from behind the arc in another poor shooting performance.
Maryland’s subpar shooting continued into the second half, while Penn State upped its offensive output in the final 20 minutes. The Terps’ halftime deficit of just four points ballooned to nearly 20 late in the second period as a result.
The Nittany Lions came out on fire after the break after shooting just 38 percent from the field in the first half. They made 60 percent of their shots the rest of the game and held a sizable lead for the majority of the second period.
Penn State opened the second half on a 23-12 run, showing a mix of timely passing and quality shotmaking. Despite Maryland playing its opponent even the rest of the game, the early period woes were too much to overcome, as the Terps never closed the gap within 12 points.
Maryland will play Rutgers in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, where it’ll hope to spark a deep run as the No. 12 seed.
