Wisconsin sets a season high in crushing Maryland with three-pointers in the Big Ten tournament

MINNEAPOLIS – In the wake of their eight-point loss to Purdue to close a turbulent regular season, Wisconsin coach Greg Gard and his players talked openly about how encouraged they were with the team’s overall play that day.

That talk sounded a bit hollow to those who focused on the fact UW hit just 5 of 24 three-pointers in the loss.

Well, Gard and his players knew what they were talking about.

Box score: Wisconsin 87, Maryland 56

The fifth-seeded Badgers started out white-hot from three-point range in building a 21-pont halftime lead and never really cooled off Thursday. Playing arguably their most impressive overall game in weeks, the Badgers steamrolled Maryland, 87-56, in the second round of the Big Ten tournament at the Target Center.

"Complete team effort both sides of the court," Gard said. "I thought defensively we set the tone early. Then obviously you start knocking down some shots and getting some offense from your defense. Just all the way up and down the lineup, got great contributions.

"I think starting to see more of what we were back in January. I felt that the last week or so, that we were trending back in the right direction and really starting to click, and today it showed again."

As a result, the Badgers (20-12) advance to the tournament quarterfinals and a second meeting with Northwestern.

UW and the fourth-seeded Wildcats (21-10) are scheduled to tip off at approximately 1:30 p.m. Friday. The Badgers won the teams’ lone regular-season meeting, 71-63, in Madison. Max Klesmit hit 5 of 7 three-pointers and finished with 24 points in the victory.

Maryland finished 16-17.

Wisconsin set a season high with 16 three-pointers

Four days after shooting just 20.8% from three-point range at Purdue, the Badgers hit 10 of 13 three-pointers (76.9%) in building a 47-26 halftime lead.

They finished 16 of 25 from three-point range (64.0%) and 31 of 60 overall (51.7%) and saw the lead balloon to 42 points after halftime. The 16 threes were a season-high for UW. Eight Wisconsin players hit at last one three-pointer and UW had 25 assists on 31 field goals.

"It’s the law of averages," Wisconsin forward Tyler Wahl said of the three-point shooting. "We’ve got a lot of good shooters. I feel we’ve been taking good shots and they just haven’t been going in.

"We went out there with the confidence to let them fly. And you see one go in and it is contagious. We saw a couple go in, kept getting good looks and they were falling today."

Steven Crowl, who got into early foul trouble and Purdue and didn’t score in 20 minutes 15 seconds of playing time, was aggressive early and often Thursday.

Crowl hit 6 of 7 shots for 14 points in the opening half and finished with 17 points, three rebounds and two assists. He finished 3 of 3 from three-point range and 7 of 8 overall.

"I'll thank the coaches for that," Crowl said. "They've been on me all season about being aggressive. Today my mindset was just to go out there and try to get (shots) up. I think we're better when I'm aggressive."

Reserve guard John Blackwell hit 4 of 4 three-pointers en route to scoring 14 first-half points. He finished 4 of 6 from beyond the arc and 6 of 11 overall for 18 points.

AJ Storr hit 6 of 10 shots, including 2 of 4 three-pointers, and finished with 16 points and four rebounds.

Chucky Hepburn was fabulous in 21 minutes. He hit 2 of 2 three-pointers and finished with 10 points and eight assists.

UW got so many contributions from so many sources that the Badgers were never threatened despite quiet games from Wahl (four points, two assists) and Klesmit (three points, five assists).

Blackwell led UW’s bench scoring – the Badgers outscored Maryland, 37-5 – but Nolan Winter added six points and two rebounds in the opening half when UW took control.

Reserve guard Connor Essegian played only nine minutes –  all in the second half –  but hit a pair of three-pointers and contributed nine points. Esseigan hadn't played more than 6:54 in the last six games and had a total of two points in those games.

"He has stayed positive amidst all the BS on the outside," Gard said. "And he came in today and was aggressive. We told him: 'Go in there and play your rear end off. Go play hard. Good things happen when you play hard.'

"And he did that. He raked the ball loose in the post. He was diving on the floor. Credit to him that he stayed mentally engaged and stayed positive."

Jahmir Young and Julian Reese combined for 38 points in Maryland's 74-70 loss to UW in February. Young scored 15 of his 18 points in the opening half Thursday. Reese was limited to six points in the opening half and finished with 10.

Maryland's lone lead was 3-2 and lasted for 26 seconds. Young hit a jumper to pull the Terps within 10-7 with 16:24 left in the first half but that turned out to be their last gasp.

Hepburn hit a three-pointer and then a jumper. Storr hit a three-pointer and Blackwell hit a three-pointer and the lead was 21-9.

Maryland’s comeback hopes were squashed in the first few minutes of the second half.

The Badgers opened the half with an 18-0 run to push the lead to 65-26. Maryland’s first basket of the half – a three-pointer by DeShawn Harris-Smith – came with 14:51 remaining in the game.

"They hit 10 threes in the first half and it was tough," Young said. "They shot at such a high percentage from three and we couldn't run them off the line.

"They had us running on defense for a majority of the game. Hat's off to them. They had a great game. That's really it."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin 3-point shooting overwhelms Maryland in Big Ten tournament