MADISON, Wis. â After losing five of six, including several of the ugly or embarrassing variety, style points no longer should matter to the University of Wisconsin. Just find a way to get the job done and move on to the next one.
The Badgers accomplished that feat Tuesday, using a first-half surge to open a wide enough gap that they were able to hold despite a furious comeback attempt by Maryland in a 74-70 victory at the Kohl Center.
A Quad-2 victory that improved the Badgers record to 12-9 in Quad 1/2 games, making just one of four teams with that many victories in such games, Wisconsin (18-9, 10-6 Big Ten) gets a week to rest before facing two road and two home games before the postseason, including a pair of games against top-15 teams.
Here are my takeaways from Wisconsin’s triumph.
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Max Klesmit (right) tries to tie up Maryland’s Julian Reese as Steven Crowl (22) reacts (Dan Sanger/BadgerBlitz)
Defense Delivers A Better Effort
Seeing a team that is second-to-last in the league in field goal percentage (39.8) shoot 50 percent in the second half and 46.2 percent for the game would lend itself to being another negative against Wisconsinâs on-again, off-again defensive effort.
However, Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard and forwards Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl agree that this was a solid defensive effort against a team that has had hard luck in one-possession games (1-6) and plays better than the one hovering around .500.
One of the lower-possession and slower-tempo teams in the league, the Badgers â mainly guard Chucky Hepburn – made all-conference point guard Jahmir Young work (20 points on 17 shots) and kept him off the three-point line (1-for-4), prevented center Julian Reece from taking over the glass (18 points, 7 rebounds) and drastically limit all the other options.
While the Terps shot 46.2 percent, including 50 percent in the second half, the Badgers held them to 1.07 points per possession.
A big part of Marylandâs offense is its ability to draw fouls. Maryland ranks No. 14 in the country at getting offense at the free-throw line per KenPom (42.3 percent ratio of free throw attempts to field goal attempts) and nearly 25 percent of its points have come from the free-throw line.
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UW held Maryland to 23 attempts, over half of which came in the final 5:30.
âWe did a pretty good job of playing clean but still playing physical,â Wahl said. âI think we did a really good job of playing team defense where we had guys in the gap, guys helping, and not over-rotating. That keeps us all on the same page, it keeps us from running around and giving up those open looks.â
It wasnât perfect. The Badgers gave up 34 points in the paint and the Terrapins went 14-for-21 on layups or dunks. Maryland also scored 14 points off its last seven possessions to prevent the Badgers from winning comfortably.
Wahl Surging at the Right Time
Wahl admitted it was hard to replicate Marylandâs physicality early, evidenced by Wisconsin having eight first-half turnovers, including three by him in the first eight-plus minutes. That didnât discourage him as much as motivate him to keep plugging away in the low post.
The result was Wahl posting 18 points, matching his third-highest total of the season, and adding six rebounds.
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In a decisive 10-0 run around the midpoint of the first half, Wahl scored six of the points. He also notched a steal and an assist to A.J. Storr on the fast break for a ferocious dunk in traffic. It wasnât nearly as pretty, but Wahl followed up Storrâs dunk with a right-handed hooked shot and a right-handed layup that counted the same. UW never gave back the lead.
Wahl scored in double figures for the 18th time this season and the 61st time of his career.
He may never admit it, but the loss of Kamari McGee and John Blackwell looked like it was starting to catch up to Max Klesmit. Having to play more minutes with the reserves out, Klesmitâs points per game dipped over the last three contests as heâs gone 5-for-27 from the field and 3-for-16 from the perimeter.
But with Blackwell back at full capacity Tuesday (and played tough with nine points (7-8 FTs), Klesmit found his rhythm offensively.
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Klesmitâs 16 points were the most since January 19 (the game McGee got hurt) and his clutch gene was in full effect. After Young crashed the rim and hit a layup to cut the lead to four, Klesmit took a high screen from Steven Crowl and buried a three-pointer with 56 seconds left to put UW up three possessions.
When the game became a whistle fest, Klesmit calming went 6-for-6 from the line over the final 36 seconds.
As a team, UW went 28-for-31 (90.3 percent), a season-high and the most made free throws since Jan.26, 2016.
âThe thing with Kles, you always know youâre going to get energy out of him,â Wahl said. âWhen heâs on the court, when heâs locked in and heâs ready to go, he brings a whole other dynamic to our team ⦠When he gets a few baskets to go in, then heâs a whole other problem for the team to worry about and it just opens up the court for us.â
Wisconsin has typically matched its No.4 with Maryland forward Donta Scott in past seasons, but the Terrapins had moved the fifth-year senior to the three with the addition of Indiana transfer Jordan Geronimo. Needing someone physical and mobile on Scott, the coaching staff gave that job to Klesmit.
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The result was Scott having two points on five shots in the first half and finishing with 12 before fouling out.
âScott tried to establish the post early, one of the first possessions and Max got a foul on him, but Max wasnât going to relent to post position,â Gard said. âYou need somebody pretty physical on him.â
By The Numbers
4 – Number of Big Ten games where Wisconsin had four starters in double figures (at Penn State, at Michigan, at Iowa).
18 – The Badgers out-rebounded Maryland, 33-24. UW has now tallied more boards in 18 of 27 games this season.
20 – UW has now hit double-digit Big Ten wins in 20 of the last 23 seasons. No other team can make that claim.
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22 – Scoring 10 points against Maryland, Storr has reached double figures in each of his last 22 games, the longest consecutive streak by a Badger since Ethan Happ tallied 42 straight games spanning the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Storr has scored 10+ in 25 out of 27 games this season.
56.7 – Wisconsin’s shooting percentage on two-point shots (17-for-30)
90.3 – UW’s 90.3 percent (28-for-31) at the line is the team’s highest FT percentage with at least 30 FTAs since going 28-for-31 against Indiana on Feb. 3, 2015.
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A D.C. man won $5 million from a scratch-off lottery ticket in Maryland last week, and the matching number that netted him the prize happened to be his age.
Talk about a birthday surprise! A D.C. man won $5 million from a scratch-off lottery ticket in Maryland last week, and the matching number that netted him the prize happened to be his age.
Maurice Williams, a school bus driver in D.C., claimed the first top prize on a $5,000,000 LUXE scratch-off. He had used his $50 winnings from a previous LUXE scratch-off ticket to buy a new one the next day.
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In a release from the Maryland Lottery, Williams said he didn’t know he had won until he scanned the ticket: “It’s crazy because the matching number was 59 and I just turned 59 the other day.”
Williams said he sat in shock for a while before calling his mother.
He said he plans to buy his mother a house with the winnings and then save up.
Two more top prizes from the scratch-off have yet to be claimed, the Maryland Lottery said, as well as nine $200,000 prizes, 10 $50,000 prizes and thousands of prizes ranging from $50 to $10,000.
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Taxpayers are being told to expect delays getting their money back, with the Comptroller of Maryland warning paper returns could take up to 30 days due to budget constraints and staff reductions — a slowdown economists say could strain cash…
After being sent home by Penn in the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament, No. 3-seed Maryland women’s lacrosse knew it needed to bring in a firestarter on offense. That spark came in the form of the Quakers’ best attacker.
Penn transfer Keeley Block’s two late goals closed the door on Rutgers Sunday, capping her four-goal performance and driving the Terps into the very quarterfinal round she denied them from in 2025.
“I just really don’t think when I shoot,” Block said. “So maybe I just didn’t think a lot.”
In a Big Ten rematch, the Terps never relinquished their lead, advancing with an 11-8 win over the Scarlet Knights.
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The first quarter mirrored Maryland’s regular-season contest against Rutgers as the Terps scored four goals in the first eight minutes of the contest. Lauren LaPointe notched the latter two goals within 28 seconds of each other, settling into her spot on the left elbow with ease.
Rutgers found a footing and netted its opening goal with six minutes to go in the opening frame, but the Terps’ response came just 37 seconds later. LaPointe spotted a cutting Block deep in the fan and shuttled a high pass for Block to immediately jam into the back of the net.
LaPointe capped her dominant opening frame by finding another cutter in Maisy Clevinger with seconds remaining. Clevinger buried her ninth goal of the season to give the Terps a five-goal advantage.
“As we move forward in this tournament, the good thing about having a balanced offense is you really need everybody to step up for us to be successful,” head coach Cathy Reese said. “Everybody needs to do their part.”
A massive component of Maryland’s early dominance was the performance of Kayla Gilmore. The sophomore helped the Terps take the first eight draw controls of the contest, avenging her 19-12 defeat in the circle the last time these teams played.
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After the Terps eventually lost a draw — over 20 minutes into the contest — the scoring began to even out. Rutgers’ Hilary Elsner and Caroline Ling sandwiched a Kori Edmondson free position goal, and Alex Popham hit a low-angle snipe with four minutes left in the half to cut the Maryland lead to three.
After a brief lull, Clevinger scored again with just 73 seconds left in the first half. Jordyn Lipkin’s assist on the score marked her second of the contest, as Maryland notched seven first half set-ups. Three different Terps had multiple assists Sunday.
But the Scarlet Knights grabbed assists of their own, scoring off indirect free positions from the left elbow three times in the second frame. The last of those scores came from Kate Theofield, who stunned JJ Suriano with just seven seconds before the halftime horn sounded. The Terps’ netminder was far more active in the second quarter, facing eight more shots than she did in the first and conceding on four of them.
While Maryland’s offense perfectly replicated its first half from its last meeting against Rutgers, its defense suffered from occasional mental lapses. Six first-half fouls from the Terps gave the Scarlet Knights easy opportunities, and Suriano looked particularly vulnerable against shots from the wing.
Maryland’s defense continued to struggle after the break despite four Suriano saves in the first eight minutes of the second half. The Terps let up another easy goal to Ling before Edmondson and Popham traded scores.
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At the close of the period, Maryland finally pieced together another run through the stick of Block. She blasted off the line on an 8-meter chance, finding nylon for her eighth hat trick of the year. Then, after committing a yellow card infraction early in the fourth quarter, Block stormed back onto the field and scored almost immediately.
That goal proved to be the dagger, securing the Terps’ return to the quarterfinals. Despite scoring just three goals in the final 30 minutes — none of which were assisted — Maryland’s defense found the stops it needed to keep the season alive.
1. Suriano’s presence. After a dominant performance in Maryland’s narrow Big Ten championship loss, the junior maintained her form Sunday. Suriano’s 10 saves and 55.6% save percentage demonstrated a reliable presence for the Terps between the posts,, what Reese described as “JJ doing JJ things.”
“I think high pressure situations are more fun,” Suriano said “And I find the joy in being out there with my teammates, doing what I love.”
2. The ground ball battle. It has been a rare sight in 2026 to see Maryland outdo its opponent in ground balls. But against Rutgers, the Terps dominated, corralling 15 of the 25 total ground balls, with Suriano and Kristen Shanahan combining for seven.
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3. Painting the frame. With a respectable 24 total shots, Maryland needed to be highly accurate to maintain its advantage. The Terps succeeded, shooting 87.5% of their shots on goal and completely overwhelming Scarlet Knight goalkeeper Stella Quilty.
