No. 16 Maryland bids to bounce back in clash at Penn State

Following one of the more stunning losses in school history, No. 16 Maryland must pull itself together quickly for Saturday’s Big Ten matchup with Penn State in University Park, Pa.The Terrapins (21-7, 11-6 Big Ten) had won eight of their last nine games before Wednesday’s crushing 58-55 loss to Michigan State – when the Spartans’ Tre Holloman swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer from just beyond half court.In fact, Maryland’s seven losses all have been tight setbacks. The Terps’ largest margin of defeat this season is only six points as the team appears destined for a high NCAA Tournament seed.While Holloman’s buzzer-beater got all the headlines, the reality for Maryland was that it shot poorly from the field (31.3 percent) and the 3-point line (4-of-20) against the Spartans. Rodney Rice (20 points), Ja’Kobi Gillespie (15) and Derik Queen (10) accounted for 45 of the squad’s 55 points while nobody on the bench scored in limited minutes.”I know we don’t have any bench points, but there’s just not a whole lot of shots to go around with those first five (starters),” coach Kevin Willard said. “Those first five are all guys that can score, so there’s no one on that starting five that I’m not going to tell to shoot. So, I don’t know where the shots are going to come from.”Despite the loss, Willard wasn’t about to hang his head. After all, there is no time for sulking in March.”I’m extremely proud of how these guys fought all night and all year. They’ve gotten better,” Willard said. “We’ll go back, watch the film, see where we need to get better and what adjustments we need to make. … That’s life in conference play — you don’t have much time to really feel sorry for yourselves.”Penn State (15-14, 5-13) is in a similar boat, having absorbed a tough defeat on Wednesday. The Nittany Lions didn’t lose on a buzzer-beater, but they did hold a halftime lead at Indiana and a two-point edge with six minutes to go before coming up short, 83-78.

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