In USC’s first trip to College Park, Maryland, the Trojans did not follow the trend from their women’s counterpart, losing 88-71 and dropping the fourth of their last five games.
With the new Big Ten Tournament rules, the bottom three teams will not be invited to the tournament in Indianapolis, so the Trojans had a tall task ahead of them, playing over 2,000 miles away and against one of the best teams in the Big Ten in an effort to boost their chances of making the postseason.
In front of a raucous Maryland crowd, the No. 20-ranked Terrapins came out on fire, as three different Terps knocked down threes, combined with a glass-shattering block and two turnovers that helped Maryland grab an 11-0 lead after just three minutes.
The Trojan’s only point before the media timeout came from graduate guard Chibuzo Agbo, who knocked down a three to cut the lead to eight.
But the Terrapins lost no momentum after their electric start, as Maryland scored five straight to go up 13 only five minutes into the game.
USC’s turnover problem, which has plagued them all year, continued against Maryland, as within 10 minutes, the Trojans had four, three of which led to points for the Terps.
Unphased by USC’s early issues, redshirt freshman guard Wesley Yates III helped cut Maryland’s lead to just six with just over seven minutes to play in the half.
Yates III’s hot streak in Big Ten conference play continued, with the shooting guard scoring 11 of the Trojan’s 23 points in a 12-minute span.
While USC’s scoring had improved from the beginning of the game, it seemed as if every time the Trojans connected on a basket, the Terps answered right back.
By the final media timeout of the half, it was junior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie who diced up USC on the offensive side with eight points, hitting two 3-pointers in quick succession.
Despite the Trojan’s poor start in the first 10 minutes and thanks to some forced turnovers and team basketball, USC cut the lead to three with just over two minutes to play.
The Trojans’ one-possession deficit didn’t last long. The Terrapins – backed by the dynamic front court of senior forward Julian Reese and freshman center Derik Queen – pushed their lead back to double digits by halftime, finishing the opening period up 37-27.
Maryland came out in the second half mirroring their first-half hot start. Within four minutes the Terrapins extended their lead over USC to 20 points with a 12-1 run, pushing their lead to 52-32.
Yates III’s offensive onslaught continued, guiding the Trojans on a 10-0 run, cutting the Terrapins lead in half in under a minute before Maryland called a timeout to talk it over.
The timeout wasn’t enough for the Terrapins. USC continued its momentum, upping the stretch to 20-6, as graduate guard Clark Slajchert hitting three 3-pointers within minutes of coming off the bench, slashing the Maryland lead to single digits at 60-54.
Right after Slajchert cut the lead to six, however, Gillespie did what he did best, getting a triple right back for the Terrapins, extending the lead to nine.
The next couple of minutes the Trojans and Terrapins traded buckets, with Queen and Gillespie doing it on the Maryland side, while Yates and sophomore guard Kevin Patton Jr. did it for the Trojans. Patton Jr. posted his USC second-highest point tally for the Trojans, scoring 11 on the game.
But Maryland’s frontcourt duo of Reese and Queen began to take over with four minutes left. The two combined for 32 points and 27 rebounds, respectively, surpassing the Trojan’s total of 26 rebounds by themselves.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, their second half run wasn’t enough. Maryland’s lethal starting five continued its scoring onslaught and killed the game.
With five games left, USC is narrowly inside the cutoff for the Big Ten Tournament. If the Trojans have any hopes of making a run in the conference tournament, they will need to play some of their best basketball coming down the home stretch.