Terps host Hoosiers in Big Ten battle

College Park, MD (SportsNetwork.com) – Hoping to come back from a loss to Iowa on Sunday, the 19th-ranked Maryland Terrapins get set to host the Indiana Hoosiers in a Big Ten Conference battle at the XFINITY Center.

Indiana survived a close call against Michigan on Sunday, winning at home in Bloomington by a 70-67 margin. The Hoosiers are now 7-4 in conference play, but own just a 2-4 record away from home.

Maryland fell way behind early against the Hawkeyes on Sunday, and ended up dropping a 71-55 decision for the team’s second loss in three games. Like Indiana, the Terps are also 7-4 against Big Ten competition, but they own an impressive 14-1 mark on their home floor.

Before this season, the last time Maryland and Indiana met on the floor was during the 2009 campaign. But the two teams clashed earlier this year in Bloomington, where the Hoosiers came away with a masterful 89-70 victory over the then-No. 13 Terps. The Hoosiers own a 6-2 all-time series advantage over Maryland.

Indiana gained a seven-point advantage over an injury-riddled Michigan team at the end of the first half, but the Wolverines showed serious fight down the stretch as they pulled to within three points with an opportunity to tie the game at the buzzer. But a last-second 3-point attempt failed, and Indiana picked up its second win in its last three outings. Troy Williams netted 20 points with eight rebounds to pace the Hoosiers in the contest, while Yogi Ferrell added in 18 points of his own with six assists. James Blackmon Jr. tallied 13 points and matched Williams’s rebound total with eight boards.

It’s been a strong season overall for the Hoosiers’ offense. Indiana currently leads the Big Ten Conference in scoring per game, netting 79.8 ppg on a whopping 47.9 percent shooting touch from the floor. But the team’s defense has struggled mightily, allowing opponents to net 72.6 ppg which ranks dead last in the league. Blackmon checks in with a team-leading scoring mark of 16.3 ppg, followed closely by Ferrell’s 16.0 ppg total. Ferrell’s 114 assists is the most on the squad, and his 87.2 shooting percentage from the free-throw line is the team’s best. Williams rounds out a trio of double-digit scorers for the Hoosiers at 13.3 ppg, adding in a team-best mark of 6.4 rpg.

Maryland didn’t lead for a single second in Saturday’s loss to Iowa. The Terrapins fell behind by as many as 25 points early in the second half, just after the Hawkeyes held a dominant 40-17 lead at halftime. The Terps connected on just 24 percent of their shots from the field in the first period, and finished the game shooting 36.7 percent overall. Melo Trimble did his best to keep the team in the game with his 20-point effort. Dez Wells chipped in with 12 points in the loss, also dishing out four assists with three steals, but he was guilty of six turnovers as well.

Maryland will be hoping its tight defense that allows opponents to net just 63.8 ppg to opponents will be enough to contain the hot Hoosiers. The Terps offensively average 70.8 ppg this season on 43.5 percent shooting, led by Trimble’s 15.4 ppg mark. Wells (13.9 ppg) and Jake Layman (13.5 ppg) each chip in with double-digit scoring efforts for Maryland, which finally has all its key players healthy. Layman leads the team on the glass by averaging 6.7 rpg, which means he’ll be tasked with trying to control the athletic Williams. The only loss Maryland has suffered at home this season was to national power Virginia back on Dec. 3.

Categorized in: NCAA Basketball