After scoring fewer than 60 points in back-to-back losses, the first half of the No. 11 Badgers’ (11-3 Big Ten, 22-5 overall) matchup with No. 23 Maryland (10-4, 22-5) looked like more of the same. But with senior guard Bronson Koenig back in uniform, the UW offense tore the Terps to shreds in the final period, outscoring UMD by 17 points in the second half en route to a 71-60 win.
With the game tied at 27 apiece in the last minute of the first half, Melo Trimble buried two straight deep 3-pointers to give his team a healthy six-point lead. Redshirt freshman guard Brevin Pritzl looked like he had answered at least one of those with a three of his own in the waning seconds, but his shot came just a split second after the shot clock expired and was waved off.
Down six to open the second half, the Badgers went on a quick 6-1 run to bring the game to within striking distance. Koenig, who had missed his first game in 136 outings Thursday against Michigan, buried a three and a pull-up midrange jump shot to give UW a two-point lead.
The Badgers would go on to extend their lead as high as 12 before ending the game with an 11-point win.
Trimble was the only Terp player to get anything going all afternoon, finishing with 27 points on 9-of-17 from the floor and 4-of-7 from deep. He struggled at the charity stripe, though, making an uncharacteristic 50 percent of his free throws.
On the other end, the Badgers thrived at the free-throw line, taking a season-high 37 attempts. Though they made just 56.8 percent of those shots, the fouls that led to those attempts kept several key Terps out of the game at pivotal moments.
Senior forward Nigel Hayes finished the game with a team-high 21 points and 10 rebounds on 6-of-15 shooting, but was far more important on the other end of the floor, where he locked down Justin Jackson, a normally dangerous offensive piece of Maryland’s puzzle.
In his return from injury, Koenig recorded nine points in 31 minutes of action, while redshirt sophomore forward Ethan Happ registered a quiet 20-point outing on 7-of-11 from the floor.
The win puts the Badgers in a dead heat with No. 16 Purdue at the top of the conference standings, though the Boilermakers hold a slight advantage by way of a head-to-head victory over UW in West Lafayette, Ind.
