Ohio St. @ Maryland preview
Xfinity Center
Last Meeting ( Feb 23, 2020 ) Maryland 72, Ohio St. 79
Ohio State seeks its fifth straight victory when its plays at Maryland on Monday.
The No. 4 Buckeyes (15-4, 9-4 Big Ten) are coming off an 89-85 win at then-No. 8 Iowa on Thursday for a program-record fourth straight road victory against a top-15 opponent.
"For us, we're all bought in," Ohio State guard Duane Washington Jr. said. "We're in a really good spot here. We're going to just keep doing what we're doing every single day, get better, and that's been our approach. Trusting the process has definitely been in our favor, and we're going to keep doing it the same way."
Maryland (10-9, 4-8) looks to rebound from a 55-50 loss at Penn State on Friday in which the Terrapins had season-lows in points and assists (six). They also matched a season high in turnovers (16).
"It really came down to 16 turnovers and we couldn't get a rebound in the second half," Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said.
Despite the sloppy play, the Terrapins squandered several opportunities to make it a one-score game in the final two minutes but couldn't get the shots to fall to the disgust of Maryland guard Darryl Morsell.
"You saw the game, you saw how difficult it was for us to score, and those were easy opportunities that I felt we should've scored on," Morsell said. "I was upset, it was late game. But I still trust my guys. We made the right plays on those plays, but just didn't execute."
The Terrapins will need to up their game against the Buckeyes, who won for the seventh time in eight games by overcoming an 11-point, second-half deficit against the Hawkeyes.
"We have an incredibly resilient bunch, as much as any group I've ever coached," Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. "So, I give our players a lot of credit."
Maryland went in the opposite direction against Penn State. The Terrapins led 23-14 with 2:47 left in the first half, but the Nittany Lions scored nine unanswered points to tie the score at halftime and carried that momentum into the second half.
"Guys just weren't locked in offensively," Turgeon said, "We have to do a better job of setting our man up to get open. Or if we're overplayed, go backdoor and get layups -- not just when the coach draws it up. It's got to be part of basketball and what you do. When I draw it up, we get backdoor layups. We didn't make them all and it's figuring that out."
The Buckeyes are playing with confidence, but Holtmann has reminded the players to take nothing for granted in the rugged Big Ten.
"We are who we are," Washington said after the Iowa game. "I think that's the message that I can say to the public. We're not going to stop being us. The best part about it is we just celebrated, and first thing coach said is, ‘We have a big one on Monday.'"
--Field Level Media