Max Klesmit surveyed at the Wisconsin logo, draining the shot clock to its final seconds.
Klesmit received a screen from Steven Crawl, who clipped DeShawn Harris-Smith to free the ball handler from his defender. Klesmit dribbled ahead in a hurry, planting his feet just behind the three-point arc before firing up a shot. The ball sank through the bottom of the net.
The junior guard clasped his hands and brought them to his right cheek as the crowd serenaded him, signaling the end of the night for Maryland men’s basketball. The Terps refused to go away quietly, however, stringing together four field goals in the final minute to cut their deficit to as little as two points.
But Klesmit was right.
Maryland couldn’t overcome the eight-point first-half hole it dug itself, falling to Wisconsin, 74-70, at the Kohl Center on Tuesday.
“We’re just getting off to lethargic starts,” coach Kevin Willard said. “… We’re always kind of clawing from behind. It’s really hurting us.”
The Badgers (18-9, 10-6 Big Ten) won with a balanced scoring attack, seeing four players reach double figures in the scoring column. Maryland (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten), meanwhile, relied heavily on Jahmir Young and Julian Reese, who combined for more than half of its points — but saw little production outside of them.
After converting on half his field goal attempts in the opening half, Young went 2-for-9 to close out the game. The Badgers hounded Maryland’s lead guard after the break while forcing the ball into other players’ hands — he ended the night 6-for-17 from the field.
Wisconsin jumped out to an early seven-point advantage, beginning the night 4-for-7 from the field. The Terps missed three of their first five shots, but Jamie Kaiser Jr. drained their first 3-pointer of the game shortly after the under-16 media timeout.
Maryland then found its footing following the slow start, going on a 12-2 scoring run while holding the Badgers without a field goal for nearly four minutes. The Terps forced five Wisconsin turnovers in the early going, scoring eight points off of them while 10 of their first 14 points came in the paint.
The back-and-forth action continued from there. Wisconsin roared back after the under-12 timeout to take a seven-point lead, highlighted by a monster dunk by AJ Storr over Jordan Geronimo in transition. Maryland was held to just a single field goal across that stretch.
The Terps were able to shorten the deficit once again from there, going on a 13-7 run to make the score 28-27 with 4:16 remaining in the first half. But the Badgers closed out the period on a 9-2 run while Maryland was held without a field goal to go into the break with a 37-29 lead.
Willard was assessed a technical foul in the closing possessions of the half. Maryland’s head coach gestured toward a nearby official after a Geronimo defensive rebound, although it was unclear what Willard said. The Badgers were awarded two free throws, their final two points to close out the period.
Tyler Wahl, Wisconsin’s second-leading scorer, paced the Badgers in the first half with 10 points and five rebounds. Young led the Terps with 11 points on eight shots, while Reese recorded nine points.
Both teams traded buckets coming out of halftime — Maryland made two of its first five shots while Wisconsin made two of its initial four. The Terps went on a scoring run in the middle portion of the half, stringing together a run where they made five of six field goals, but the deficit never shrunk to less than five across that stretch.
“The biggest difference in the second half is they got three huge offensive rebounds,” Willard said. “Every time we cut it to three, every time we cut it to two, they got a big offensive rebound.”
Wisconsin shot 36 percent from the field and 17 percent from three in the second period after shooting significantly better in the opening half. Maryland outscored Wisconsin 41-37 in the game’s final 20 minutes, but the eight-point halftime deficit proved too much for the Terps to overcome in a hostile road environment.
