This was what many expected from the Maryland men’s basketball team this season, before three freshmen starters showed that the Terps were more than just junior guard Melo Trimble.

Trimble did as much as he could to keep No. 23 Maryland competitive Sunday here at the Kohl Center, shooting the Terps to a six-point halftime lead over No. 11 Wisconsin and then helping trim what became an eight-point deficit to three.

With Maryland still within striking distance despite a huge differential in free throws, Trimble missed the front end of two straight one-and-ones, and the Badgers took advantage by breaking out to a 12-point lead and eventually a 71-60 victory.

The loss dropped Maryland (22-5, 10-4) into second place in the Big Ten, a game behind both Wisconsin (22-5, 11-3) and Purdue. It was only the second defeat in eight Big Ten road games for the Terps.

Trimble led Maryland with 27 points, including 15 in the first half, with only one other Terp, junior center Michal Cekovsky (10 points) in double figures. Trimble, who hit a game-winning 3-pointer at Wisconsin last season, sat out the last 4:32 of this game, as it appeared Mark Turgeon knew his team’s fate.

Asked about his decision to sit Trimble at the end, Turgeon said: “He was tired, he was carrying us, he missed two free throws he never misses. If we had made a little run, I would have put him back in. We got four games in 10 days [coming up]. Wisconsin was dominating the game.”

Said Trimble, who was coming off a career-high 32 points against Northwestern: “I missed free throws, it happens. I’m a basketball player. I’m not going to be perfect, even though I want to. I just came up short. Coach took me out. I thought I was going to get a breather, but I wound up not going in and the game was pretty much pushed out to the point where it was no point to put me back in.”

Wisconsin guard Zak Showalter has a vivid memory of last season’s 63-60 loss to Maryland at the Kohl Center. It makes sense, since Showalter was guarding Melo Trimble as the Terps’ star guard buried a long 3-point shot with 1.2 seconds remaining.

Showalter said Friday that he thought Trimble was...

Wisconsin guard Zak Showalter has a vivid memory of last season’s 63-60 loss to Maryland at the Kohl Center. It makes sense, since Showalter was guarding Melo Trimble as the Terps’ star guard buried a long 3-point shot with 1.2 seconds remaining.

Showalter said Friday that he thought Trimble was...

Mostly it was Wisconsin’s inside game – and perhaps some false confidence by the young Terps – that did in Maryland in the second half.

“I think we just got comfortable with the six-point lead that we had and we didn’t respect [Ethan] Happ; we tried to double him,” Trimble said. “He was getting to the line a lot, but he wasn’t scoring as much [in the first half]. Then the second half he started to score, he really hurt us and Nigel [Hayes] hit some jump shots.”

The 6-foot-8, 240-pound Hayes led the Badgers with 21 points, including 14 in the second half,  to go along with 10 rebounds. The 6-10, 232-pound Happ finished with 20 points and seven rebounds. The Badgers outrebounded the Terps, 44-27 overall, 25-11 in the second half, including 18-5 overall on the offensive boards.

Maryland’s three freshmen starters – guard Anthony Cowan, wing Kevin Huerter and forward Jackson – scored just 16 points collectively, shooting a combined 4-of-16 from the field.

“They [the freshmen] couldn’t get it going, but we’re down five with five minutes to go,” Turgeon said. “We’re pretty good. Those guys have been great. We’ll be all right. We’ll regroup, we have Minnesota on Wednesday. But it was their day, it was Wisconsin’s day.”

Turgeon, who picked up a technical foul during a 19-5 run by the Badgers to start the second half, didn’t mention the discrepancy in free throws. Wisconsin took 37, making just 21, while the Terps were 14-of-23. Maryland made just eight of 23 shots in the second half after shooting 11-of-22 in the first half.

Huerter thought the game was lost on the defensive end, especially on the boards.

“The second half we couldn’t get a stop and when we did get a stop, they’d get an offensive rebound and we fouled,” Huerter said. “No matter how good the offense is, if you don’t get a stop – it felt like every time down the court [Wisconsin scored] – you’re not going to win the game.”

The two free throws Trimble missed came with 6:51 and 6:08 remaining, with the Terps down six points before the first three throw and eight points before the second. Before that happened, Trimble thought that Maryland was going to make one of its trademark second-half comebacks.

“Unfortunately I missed some free throws that I normally make," he said. "Of course I’m thinking about it. If I had made the free throws and we just got stops as a team and rebounded as a team, we would  have come back and won this game. But that didn’t happen.”

Huerter, who also sat out the last 4 ½ minutes, thought the outcome might have been different had Trimble made the free throws, but he couldn’t blame Trimble for the outcome.

“There was a bunch of tough shots Melo hit before that, where you’ve got to trade off,” Huerter said. “He’s going to miss a shot at some point. He definitely carried us a lot today. If had made those and we go down by four, it’s a different game, obviously.”

Notes: Hayes started his post-game press conference by apologizing to Turgeon and the Maryland team for a breakaway dunk with 16 seconds remaining, saying he thought there were more than 30 seconds left in the game. ... Turgeon said that Cekovsky, who sat out the last four minutes, rolled his ankle.

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