It’s been a down season for Maryland and Rutgers, two teams that joined the Big Ten conference together a decade ago and have had their fair shares of basketball success.
Both teams are on two-game slides as they enter Sunday’s rematch in Piscataway, N.J., with visiting Maryland out for revenge after losing the first meeting.
Maryland (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten) shot an ugly 17-of-54 overall (31.5 percent) and 2-for-18 from the 3-point arc in a 56-53 loss to the Scarlet Knights on Feb. 6. That came as part of a 1-5 start to the month of February, torpedoing any NCAA Tournament hopes the Terrapins had.
They last played on Tuesday and fell 74-70 at Wisconsin. Jahmir Young had 20 points and Julian Reese scored 18, while fifth-year senior Donta Scott made 5 of 9 shots for 12 points before fouling out.
“That’s something that we’ve struggled with a little bit all year was getting that third guy to be a consistent scorer, where Donta needs to be that guy,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. “And again, in the second half, he was great. He was much more aggressive. We got him some things downhill.
“These guys are playing, they’re playing hard. They’re working hard, they have a great attitude. It’s just, they’re just as frustrated as I am with the fact that we just can’t — we can’t string together some Ws.”
Rutgers (14-12, 6-9) had a four-game winning streak to start the month, coinciding with the debut of Iowa State transfer Jeremiah Williams, who needed a court injunction to allow him to play after a long eligibility battle. Williams made the crucial contested layup late in Rutgers’ first game against Maryland that secured the win.
The Scarlet Knights came back to earth this week with road losses to Minnesota and No. 3 Purdue. The Boilermakers smacked Rutgers 96-68 on Thursday.
“We didn’t have the rhythm we needed,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said in a postgame radio interview. “I didn’t have these guys where they needed to be playing the (No. 3) team in the country. If our defense doesn’t start traveling, especially in this league, if you give up those kinds of numbers you can’t win.”
Williams has averaged 13.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game in six games for Rutgers. Clifford Omoruyi provides 10.9 points and 8.8 rebounds per contest.
For Maryland, Young (21.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists per game) and Reese (13.8 points, 10.0 rebounds) are the dynamic duo and Scott adds 11.6 points per game.
–Field Level Media