Huskers Fall to Maryland, Losing Streak Stretches to Eight

It’s been a long season for Nebraska basketball. Some thought they might have trouble reaching the level they did last season, but few saw them taking such a dramatic step backwards. The Huskers hosted the Maryland Terrapins in their final game of the regular season, and in frustrating, familiar fashion, lost 64-61.

In the throes of a seven game losing streak, the Huskers were desperate to not drag this losing streak on to the Big Ten Tournament. They played like it...on defense. Maryland, as much as a top ten team can be, is a team that is a pretty good matchup for Nebraska. They’re not overly big. They don’t have a physical post presence that give the Huskers all sorts of fits. The Huskers were able to take advantage, able to get to the rim for one of the few times all season. They, much like they have all season, had trouble finishing at the rim on occasion, however. Because of that, they also found themselves at the foul line quite a bit, 37 times in fact. They failed to take advantage of it, hitting only 24 times, shooting 62.2%.

They ran fairly decent offensive sets, too, but didn’t shoot well from the field, hitting on only 18-59 (30.5%). From 3 it was truly bad. They attempted 14 shots from behind the arc. They hit two of them.

Shavon Shields and Terran Petteway, as usual, did the heavy lifting offensively for NU. Shavon Shields notched his high water mark in conference play with 26 points. Petteway recorded his third double-double and first in conference play with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

It wasn’t enough, though, as Maryland star guard, Melo Trimble, was too much for the Huskers yet again. Trimble, in their first meeting of the season on February 19, hit two big time three’s to squelch any notion the Huskers had of pulling off the upset. Again in Lincoln, Trimble was the difference as he hit several big shots for the Terps.

It was the Maryland senior guard Dez Wells who’s cold-blooded shot that put the biggest stake in the heart of the Huskers on this night. Wells had a good night in his own right, scoring 18 points. He got the ball as the clock saw the final seconds slipping away. The Terps had a one point lead and after calling a timeout with four seconds on the shot clock and 11 on the game clock, Wells 20’ jumper fell through the rim to give Maryland a 3 point lead with seven seconds to play. After a Husker timeout, the Huskers were not able to get a clean look, as Shields’ turn around three fell by the wayside, knocking the Huskers skid to eight games.

The Huskers will now take that losing streak to Chicago and the Big Ten Tournament. The loss means the Huskers will be the 12 seed and will take on Penn State Wednesday afternoon at 3:30. The Nittany Lions knocked off the Huskers in their only meeting, 56-43.