Even in a season that looks destined to be its worst in 29 years, Maryland has shown lately that it’s still capable of summoning its old blue-blood magic.
Sunday’s 75-60 upset of then-No. 22 Ohio State was the Terrapins’ best performance of the season. It also was their third win in their past four games.
Wednesday night, when Minnesota (13-14, 4-14 Big Ten) travels to College Park to take on revitalized Maryland (14-15, 6-12), the Terps will try to continue their late push to avoid their first losing season since 1992-93.
Fatts Russell has been the catalyst for Maryland’s surge. Over the past six games, he’s averaged 22.5 points. Against Ohio State, Russell made 6 of 10 attempts from beyond the arc on his way to scoring 27 points.
Early in the game, Russell reached the 2,000-point mark for his career. Then four of his 3-pointers came in the final 10 minutes, when the Terps transformed a 3-point lead into an 18-point bulge.
Russell and Eric Ayala (23 points) did it in front of Maryland’s 2002 NCAA championship team, including former NBA players Steve Blake, Juan Dixon and Chris Wilcox and former coach Gary Williams. The school honored the team on Sunday.
“Just seeing all the guys walk in there,” Russell said. “We went out there and tried not to disappoint them.”
Minnesota arrives after consecutive losses at home — 68-67 to Wisconsin on Wednesday and 84-79 to Indiana on Sunday. While the Wisconsin game was tight throughout the second half, the final score of the Indiana game was deceptive as the Hoosiers led by 27 points with less than nine minutes left.
Payton Willis scored 28 points and dealt seven assists in the Indiana game, as he made 7 of 14 shots from distance.
“We have a bunch of kids, young men, that fight and my only message to them is I wish we would have had that fight a little bit earlier,” coach Ben Johnson said. “I thought the ability to come back, you don’t do that if you’re not competitive.”
–Field Level Media
