GAME NOTES: A pair of ranked squads in the Big Ten Conference get together on Thursday night, as No. 13 Maryland pays a visit to No. 23 Indiana.

Maryland has enjoyed a ton of success in this, its first season as a member of the Big Ten, logging a 17-2 overall record, which includes a 5-1 league ledger. The Terrapins have won three in a row since suffering a 64-57 loss at Illinois on Jan. 7, and they are hoping to improve to 4-1 in true road games with a win this evening. The team's most recent triumph took place at home last Saturday in a 75-59 rout of Michigan State.

Indiana has also won three straight to climb to 14-4 overall and 4-1 in conference, and it finds itself in rarified air as a member of the AP Top-25 this week for the first time this season. The Hoosiers, who won at Illinois this past Sunday, 80-74, in their most recent outing, are 11-1 at home, having won their last seven in front of the frenzied IU faithful.

Indiana owns a 5-2 lead in the all-time series with Maryland, and this is the first meeting between the two as members of the same conference. The teams will meet in College Park on Feb. 11 to complete the regular-season series.

Maryland used a 20-4 advantage in points from the foul line, and a 33-6 edge in points from 3-point range to knock off visiting Michigan State last weekend. Both teams were rather lackluster from the field overall, MSU at 44.8 percent and UM at 43.1 percent, but the Terps were guilty of only eight turnovers and they got a pair of impressive scoring efforts from Melo Trimble and Jake Layman with 24 and 23 points, respectively. Layman added to his solid stat line by grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds, while Trimble did most of his damage from the outside, going 6-of-11 on 3-point tries.

Trimble heads a list of three players averaging double figures for Maryland this season, as he nets 16.1 ppg while also serving as the team's primary playmaker with 57 assists. Layman contributes 14.7 points and 6.9 caroms per contest, while Dez Wells pitches in with 13.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. As a collective unit, the Terrapins are scoring 72.9 ppg in hitting 44.4 percent of their field goal attempts, which includes a 37.0 percent showing from beyond the arc, while allowing just 61.4 ppg with foes shooting 37.7 percent from the floor, which encompasses their 27.9 percent performance out on the perimeter. UM is on the plus side of the ledger in rebounding margin (+4.6), but is in the red with regard to turnover differential (-0.6).

Troy Williams and James Blackmon, Jr. each scored 21 points to help Indiana overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half and defeat Illinois last weekend. Williams pulled down nine rebounds as well, as the Hoosiers won the battle on the boards, 31-25, and they committed only nine turnovers. Both teams hit double-digit 3-pointers in the contest, with Blackmon and Nick Zeisloft combining for seven of IU's 11 treys. Zeisloft finished with 10 points in 19 minutes of action off the bench for the Hoosiers in the winning effort.

With three players averaging double figures, and three others netting at least 6.4 ppg, Indiana is lighting up the scoreboard for 81.6 ppg behind typical shooting outputs of .477 overall, .391 from distance, and .722 from the free- throw line. The team has been rather lax at the defensive end in yielding 71.4 ppg, despite foes converting only 30.2 percent of their long-range launches. Blackmon paces the unit with 16.6 ppg, to go with 5.7 rpg, while Yogi Ferrell and Williams generate 14.9 and 13.4 ppg, respectively, with the latter spearheading the team's rebounding effort with 6.1 rpg.

The Hoosiers are awfully tough to beat at home, but if there is one team that could accomplish the feat, it's the Terps. Expect a tight battle throughout, but the visitors to come out on top as they continue their impressive run.