Hoosiers Falter in Final Seconds, Lose at Home to Maryland, 79-78

Indiana had two late defensive lapses and failed to execute on offense in the final seconds, letting a five-point lead slip away in a 79-78 loss to Maryland on Sunday at Assembly Hall.

Indiana's Mackenzie Mgbako (21) scores past Maryland's Selton Miguel (10) during Sunday's game in Bloomington. Maryland won, 79-78. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana isn't a team that's had a lot of double-digits comebacks the past few years. But they had the chance on Sunday, with the ball in their hands.

And they let it slip away. Twice.

Maryland came into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and walked out with a stunning 79-78 victory, its fifth win in six games and second straight on the road. The Hoosiers erased a 10-point lead midway through the second half and had two chances to steal a win of their own in front of a loud and mostly supportive home crowd.

They couldn't get it done. And this one hurt.

"It's a game of runs, and we were able to go on a run there (to erase Maryland's 63-53 lead with 9 minutes to),'' Indiana senior Anthony Leal said. "We know that we're going to go on runs and they're going to go on runs. It's about who can handle those punches and keep fighting better than the other team.

"But we've just got to find a way to finish.''

The Hoosiers had a 78-74 lead with 38 seconds to go thanks to a put-back by Leal — who had several huge second-half plays and scored six key points — and a free throw after he was fouled. Maryland scored quickly on the other and, and they fouled Indiana senior guard Trey Galloway, a career 61.2 percent free throw shooter, with 22 seconds to go.

He missed the front end of the one-and-one though, and Maryland freshman Derik Queen rebounded. Maryland called timeout.

Indiana had a foul to give, and coach Mike Woodson said that was conveyed in the huddle before Maryland's last possession. The clock wound down and got frenetic when Maryland's Ja'k Gillespie drove into the lane and lost his balance a bit. Indiana fans clamored for a double dribble, but nothing was called. Gillespie passed to Julian Reese, who quickly kicked the ball out the Maryland guard Rodney Rice, who drilled a three-pointer, Maryland's 12th of the game.

That's too many threes to give up, especially when the last one was the game-winner

"Again, if guys are shooting — a couple times we lost guys, but there were a few times that we were right there,'' Woodson said. "Obviously you're not close enough if guys can just turn and shoot in your face and make them.

"We've just got to get better in that area and guarding the three-ball. Early on, we were pretty good in that area, and we had some slippage there as well.''

Indiana called timeout with 5.7 seconds left and set up a play in the huddle to get the ball to Malik Reneau, who had eight second-half points. He caught the inbounds pass, but Queen, a former high school teammate at Montverde Academy in Florida, tipped the ball away.

With 3.8 seconds left and Indiana out of timeouts, Woodson called another play and put shooters Luke Goode and Mackenzie Mgbako back on the floor. The ball went into Indiana point guard Myles Rice in the corner, but he had nowhere to go against Maryland's zone defense, which sealed him off. He hoisted up a forced three-pointer, which missed and the Hoosiers were forced to swallow a tough loss.

Rice said subbing in Goode and Mgbako created some confusion, and everyone wasn't on the same page.

"I'll just start by saying this, and I know they're not going to want me to say it, but that's on me as the point guard,'' Rice said. "No matter what lineup we're in, we have to make sure we all know what we're doing, and I'll take some of the heat on that.

"It's just the heat of the moment. You can't really put it into words sometimes. Everything happens so fast. It's not only just the team, but especially me, to be cool, calm, and collected and be in that head space to know, like I said, make sure everybody's in their spots and make sure we know what we're doing.''

Rice led the Hoosiers with 16 points, along with Mgbako. He hit three three-pointers, had three assists and just one turnover in 35 minutes of action. But as the point guard and a team laader, he took responsibility for all that went wrong down the stretch.

 "I think we were trying to run a play, but then the substitutions kind of got everybody confused a little bit, trying to put everybody in their right spots,'' Rice said. "Then we didn't have a timeout, so we were trying to fix everything on the fly a little bit in such a heated moment.

"We've got to be better as players. No matter who's in the group and who's on the court, that we can get the play off no matter what. We've just got to be better.''

There was plenty of blame to go around though. Not fouling was an issue, as was the missed free throw by Galloway that could have iced the game.

"We executed to get back into the game and then we're on the free-throw line with the one-and-one, up two with, I think, 20-something seconds on the clock,'' Woodson said. "Then we just didn't get a key stop with a foul to give. The ball scrambled out. The initial thrust of their offense, I thought we played it well. Then when the ball kind of spurted around, we just didn't get up and take the foul like we should have.''

Indiana is 14-7 now and just 5-5 in the league. In their next four games, they have road games at Purdue (Jan. 31), Wisconsin (Feb. 4) and Michigan State (Feb. 11) and a Feb. 8 home game against Michigan. Those are the four best teams in the Big Ten — Maryland is fifth — and they are a combined 28-7 so far in Big Ten play.

"We're sitting at 5-5 in the Big Ten. We've got 10 games left,'' Leal said. "Our next four are against really, really good teams that, if we're able to string some wins together, it changes the whole trajectory of our season.

"We get Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, those are golden opportunities for us to get over the hump a little bit, figure it out, and just continue learning how to win. If we're able to string some of those wins together, it changes everything. We still have ten games to go, and we want to try to win all 10 of them.''