COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Time for the Terps to turn the page.
"You can’t dwell on the past," said Terps guard Darryl Morsell. "This is a tough conference so you can’t be worried about something that happened in the past against Michigan State."
The University of Maryland men's basketball team suffered its first home loss of the season on Saturday to the Spartans, 78-66. Little went right.
"We just didn’t play defense the way we normally play," said Terps forward Jalen Smith. "We just played out of character, rushed a lot of shots, shot a lot of bad shots and we just didn’t play our game."
With a 13-5 conference record the Terps still sit atop the Big Ten. Their first-place lead is now just a single game over Michigan State, Illinois and Wisconsin. One win over their final two games of the regular season clinches at least a share of the Big Ten title for the first time in program history.
"If we take care of what we need to take care of everything will fall into place," said Morsell.
"We’ve got one week to go and the guys, I’m so proud of them and what they’ve done. But I know what everybody wants and we want it too. Just hopefully we can pull it off," added Terps Head Coach Mark Turgeon.
The next shot at grabbing that conference crown comes on Tuesday night at Rutgers inside a building that hasn’t been kind to visitors this season.
The Scarlet Knights own the best home record in the Big Ten, 17-1. They haven’t played since losing at Penn State last Wednesday.
"They (the Terps) want to finish this off," said Turgeon. "My whole deal is just to try to get us to play well and play relaxed."
"They try to out-tough you. They shoot the ball well at home. So, we got to go in there hungry. We got to have an underdog mentality," said Morsell.
Rutgers has lost three games in a row, four of its last five and six of its last eight. They dropped a 56-51 decision at Maryland on February 4.
Follow Shawn Stepner on Twitter @StepnerWMAR and Facebook
