Frank Lorenzo
(5) Wisconsin Badgers (-5.5, 130.5) at (14) Maryland Terrapins
The No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers (25-2, 13-1 Big Ten) look for their tenth win in a row tonight when they visit the No. 14 Maryland Terrapins (22-5, 10-4 Big Ten) at the XFINITY Center (7:00 p.m. Eastern).
The Badgers haven’t lost since a surprise 67-62 setback to Rutgers, the last-place team in the Big 12. Since then, they have been absolutely dominant in the conference, winning nine straight, including seven by double-digits.
Most recently, Wisconsin downed Minnesota, 63-53, at home. Sophomore Bronson Koenig scored 17 points in the win.
“To be honest, my shots fell pretty good at Penn State, too [which was a 55-47 road win for the Badgers]. They just weren’t falling for me,” said Koenig after downing the Gophers. “So I just tried to come into this game with the same mindset as every game and just shoot when I’m open pretty much. Luckily a couple of them were falling. But, I was pretty disappointed with a couple of times I could have finished at the rim.”
Maryland has been on a streak of its own, winning four of the last give and climbing inside the top-15. The Terps edged Nebraska, 69-65, last Thursday with Melo Trimble scoring 26 points on 7/9 from the floor and 10/11 from the stripe.
“Melo was terrific down the stretch,” said Terrapins coach Mark Turgeon. “The kid’s just a winner. I’ve been saying that since we got him. It sure is nice to have him; I’ll tell you that.”
Wisconsin is currently a 5.5-point favorite. These two programs have only met four times since 2002, with the Badgers winning and covering in the last two. However, Maryland’s only home loss this season came in early December against then-No. 7 (now No. 2) Virginia. They have won 11 straight at home since that time, but haven’t faced any ranked teams at XFINITY.
(Photo credit: White & Blue Review (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/legalcode].)
