Just a few days after looking every bit the Big Ten preseason player of the year, hitting that awesome game-winning 3 against Wisconsin, Melo Trimble was nowhere to be found on Tuesday night in Ann Arbor.
Oh, he was on the floor. He just wasn't doing much of anything, scoring just two points as third-ranked Maryland was toppled by Michigan, 70-67.
Trimble scored a bucket in the first minute of the game, but that was it. He had two points — a career low — on 1-for-7 shooting, missing all three of his 3-point attempts and turning the ball over four times.
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Meanwhile, the Terps couldn't keep the Wolverines form splashing home 3-pointers. Michigan hit 12 of them on the evening, with Duncan Robinson making five and Zak Irvin and Derrick Walton each hitting three.
The teams shot roughly the same in the first half, though the Wolverines went a scorching 8-for-15 from behind the arc, four of Robinson's trifectas coming in the opening 20 minutes. The Terps also turned the ball over nine times in the first half, leading to eight Michigan points, and were outscored in the paint, 16-6, sending Maryland to the break down eight.
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That lead quickly hit double digits in the opening minutes of the second half, but Diamond Stone dragged the Terps out of that hole, the freshman big man scoring 12 of Maryland's first 19 points of the half. A Jake Layman basket tied the game at 54 with seven and a half minutes to play, and the Terps actually had a lead thanks to Stone's three-point play not long after. But Michigan punched right back, going on an 11-2 run to grow its lead as big as eight on an Irvin triple with under three minutes to play. Rasheed Sulaimon cut the deficit to five with an answer 3, but that triple was answered by a bucket from Walton to make it a seven-point game.
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Sulaimon hit another 3-pointer, and after Irvin missed the front end of a 1-and-1, Stone hit two free throws to bring the Terps within a bucket with 40 seconds left. Mark Donnal split a pair of free throws with 17 seconds to play, but Sulaimon — with Sunday's hero Trimble not even touching the ball on the final possession — missed a potential game-tying triple as time ran out and the Terps were upset.
Michigan shot 47.2 percent from the field compared to Maryland's 44.8-percent effort. Michigan finished 12-for-29 from 3, and Maryland was just 6-for-24. The Terps actually grabbed nine more rebounds but also committed four more turnovers, the Wolverines piling up seven steals. Michigan outscored Maryland in the paint, 34-22, and had a 16-5 edge in second-chance points.
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Irvin led the way for the Wolverines with 22 points. Robinson finished with 17, and Walton had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Michigan again played without injured star Caris LeVert, who has missed the past three games.
Stone was the high man for the Terps with 22 points, recording a double-double with 11 rebounds. Layman also had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Robert Carter had 15 points. Sulaimon had the big 3-pointers late, but he finished with just eight points on 3-for-10 shooting.
Trimble's career-low scoring effort isn't exactly without precedent. Last season, Trimble had scoring outputs of three and four points, going a combined 0-for-13 from the field in back-to-back games against Ohio State and Penn State. Just two games ago, he scored only four points against Rutgers, though he played only 14 minutes in that one. Earlier this season, in 26 minutes against St. Francis, Trimble was 1-for-3 from the field and scored just three points.
The loss was just the second of the season for Maryland, which dropped to 15-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play with the loss. Next up is a Saturday game against Ohio State.
The win was huge for Michigan coming off a 17-point loss to Purdue last week. The Wolverines moved to 13-4 overall and 3-1 in league play with the win. Next comes a trip to Iowa on Sunday.