And just like that, Maryland men’s basketball’s lead in the Big Ten has disappeared.
The No. 9 Terps, who led the field by two games when they hosted “College GameDay” the morning of Feb. 29, have now lost consecutive contests and three of their last four games. After falling 78-66 to Michigan State Feb. 29, they laid an egg in Piscataway, N.J., en route to a 78-67 loss at Rutgers March 3 that wasn’t even that close.
Maryland led this game for all of 52 seconds and trailed for the final 35:35. The Terps never found an offensive rhythm against Rutgers’ physical defense, consistently settling for threes and clanking them off the rim. They started this game 2-of-20 from distance and finished 6-of-32, dragging them down to 38.5 percent overall. Rutgers, meanwhile, shot 49.2 percent as a team and 7-of-16 from 3.
Anthony Cowan Jr. scored 13 of his 19 points in the first half, while Jalen Smith tallied 12 of his 17 after intermission. But they got no help; none of their teammates scored in double figures and the rest of the squad shot 12-of-41 (29.3 percent). Rutgers got 17 points from Jacob Young, 15 from Montez Mathis and 11 from Geo Baker in a performance that warranted a court storm.
