COLUMBUS, Ohio — Already trailing in the second half against West Virginia, Maryland lost its best player and could never recover.
That all but ensured a 69-59 loss in the NCAA tournament on Sunday.
“He took a beating tonight,” coach Mark Turgeon said of leading-scorer Melo Trimble, who was knocked out of the game with 8:25 remaining and the Terrapins down, 53-46. “Would the outcome have been different? We don’t know. But obviously we weren’t the same without him out there.”
Trimble got leveled three times in the game, leaving for good after he was apparently kicked in the head by forward Damonte Dodd as he tried to intercept a long pass by the Mountaineers.
He spent the final 8:25 at the end of the bench, his head in his hands.
“Obviously, Melo is pretty important to us,” Turgeon said of the first-team all-Big Ten player who averaged a team-high 16.3 points a game. “Lucky for us, he’s been healthy all year. That’s pretty amazing. We have one point guard in our program, and a really good one in Melo. And it’s the first time all year really that he couldn’t play.”
SEE ALSO: Melo Trimble sustains head injury in Maryland’s loss to West Virginia
The teams were locked in a close battle until the Mountaineers used gritty pressure defense and physical play to pull away.
Devin Williams, who led West Virginia (25-9) with 16 points and 10 rebounds, scored off an offensive board to make it 49-46. The next time down the floor, after a Maryland miss, Tarik Phillip, who hit the clinching 3-pointer late in the shot clock with 29 seconds left against Buffalo on Friday, had his shot blocked. But he got it back and powered it in with 10:08 left.
Moments later, Juwan Staten threw a 60-foot pass to Miles behind the defense for a layup. That was the play on which Trimble was hurt.
Maryland (28-7) cut the deficit to five points, but Jevon Carter responded with a 3-pointer for WVU with 4:18 left.
The Mountaineers were content the rest of the way to play keep-away with the ball, Gary Browne and Staten cycling the ball around the perimeter until there was a foul or one of their bruising bigs could muscle in another basket.
Dez Wells, Maryland’s first-team all-Big Ten swingman, had a forgettable night. Averaging 15.3 points per game, he had nine points on 3-of-8 shooting to go with eight turnovers — just one fewer than the entire West Virginia team.
“They kept throwing a lot of bodies at us and we turned the ball over more than we usually do,” said Wells, whose streak of 13 consecutive games with more than 10 points ended. “My hat goes off to coach [Bob] Huggins and his team. They did a good job.”
Maryland totaled a season-high 23 turnovers, which resulted in 26 points for West Virginia. On top of that, the muscular Mountaineers had 14 offensive rebounds that they converted into 16 points.
Maryland was trying to advance to the round of 16 for the first time since 2003 — a year after the Terrapins won the national championship under coach Gary Williams.
The victory earns West Virginia a date with Kentucky on Thursday in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats, undefeated at 36-0, defeated Cincinnati on Saturday to advance.
“I wish I could sit here and tell you we’re definitely going to win,” Huggins said. “I can’t do that. But I can tell you we’re not going to be scared.”
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