STAT PACK: Micah Potter Leads No.14 Wisconsin Over Maryland, 61-55
Shutdown in an ugly loss the first time Wisconsin saw Maryland, Micah Potter wasn’t going to be silenced in the second.
The senior forward carried the weight for the 14th-ranked Badgers, scoring a season-high 23 points to lead the Badgers to a 61-55 victory over Maryland at the Xfinity Center.
Potter scored 14 points in the opening half to help Wisconsin (13-4, 7-3 Big Ten) build an 18-point lead and delivered three clutch plays in the second half to keep Maryland (9-8, 3-7) at bay after the Terrapins had cut the lead to three.
It’s the first victory for Wisconsin in College Park since 2016, improving the Badgers to 3-1 on the road in conference play.
We take a closer look at the game in the BadgerBlitz Stat Pack.
- Potter’s 23 points and 12 rebounds each were season highs for the senior, as he went 8-for-12 from the floor, 4-for-6 from 3-point range and 3-for-3 from the free throw line. D’Mitrik Trice (13) was the only other UW player to reach double figures.
- After allowing Maryland to score 38 points in the paint in the first meeting, the Badgers held the Terps to 20 points in the lane. As a result, Maryland struggled in shooting 35.8 percent from the floor.
- Wisconsin opened the game with a 14-4 run, including an 8-0 spurt over a 79-second stretch. Maryland opened 2-for-11 from the floor and committed three turnovers over its first 12 possessions. The seventh and eighth points on that UW run came off two offensive rebounds.
- Maryland’s subpar shooting continued well into the first half. The Terps started 3-for-16 from the field and were unable to enjoy the same open driving lanes that they did during the first meeting. That resulted in the Terps going 0-for-8 from behind the arc.
- After going 7-for-28 from 3-point range Saturday, Wisconsin started 5-for-10 in building a 30-16 lead at the final media timeout in the first half. The looks were similar to the shots the Badgers missed against Ohio State, only they went in with greater consistency in the first half. Potter hit a pair while Brad Davison, Nate Reuvers and Trice each had one.
- To punctuate the first half, Tyler Wahl crossed over forward Donta Scott and hit a runner down the right lane line before the clock expired to give the Badgers a 38-20 lead.
- Wisconsin finished the first half shooting 46.9 percent from the floor, 46.2 percent from 3-point range and was plus-10 on the glass.
- Maryland came out firing in the second half with a 20-5 run, including scoring the first eight points of the half, to cut the 18-point lead down to three with 11:45 remaining. For as hot as Wisconsin was to end the first half, the Badgers were porous offensively. Missing its first five shots, the Badgers began settling for 3-pointers instead of attacking the lane. With those shots not falling, UW started 2-for-11 overall and 1-for-7 from the perimeter.
- After Aaron Wiggins (team-high 18 points) hit a pull-up jumper in the paint to cut the lead to 46-43, Davison hit a 3-pointer to stem the momentum. When Maryland hit a hook shot in the paint to cut the lead to four, Potter took over with a 3-point play off an offensive rebound and two 3-pointers in short order. Combined with Jonathan Davis’s layup off a turnover, the run was 14-2 to push the lead back to 15 points.
- Wisconsin didn’t make a field goal for the final 7:05, but Trice went 4-for-4 from the line and the Badgers held Maryland to only four points in the paint over that stretch to ice out the game.
- The Badgers improved to 4-1 on the road and won for the first time in College Park since 2016.
- Wisconsin stays on the road and will take on Penn State Saturday afternoon in a game rescheduled from early January. Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.