MADISON, Wisc. — As soon as Maryland men’s basketball forward Jalen Smith collapsed to double-team Ethan Happ at the post, the Wisconsin forward dished out of the paint to a wide-open Aleem Ford.

Smith scrambled back out to the wing, raising his arm to contest the shot. But Ford had too much room beyond the arc and swished the 3-pointer — one of six for the Badgers in the second half — to put his side ahead for good with under five minutes to play.

With Smith and fellow forward Bruno Fernando in foul trouble, coach Mark Turgeon was forced to employ a zone defense for large portions of the second half. And after struggling from long range to start the game, Wisconsin heated up in the final 20 minutes to complete a comeback win over the Terps.

“Well, my two best post players — who might be the best frontcourt if they stuck around — had three fouls,” Turgeon said. “So I was kind of forced to do it.”

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In the first half, Smith picked up two fouls, and Fernando had just one. Then, less than three minutes into the second half, the two of them were called for three fouls in a 33-second span, prompting Turgeon to bring in forwards Ricky Lindo and Ivan Bender.

The switch to a zone paid off at first. After Fernando and Smith got their third fouls, the Badgers went nearly six minutes without making a field goal.

“We got too spread out,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “We had too many guys on the perimeter early when they went to [a zone].”

But the deadlock didn’t last.

Soon after guard Eric Ayala hit a three to put Maryland ahead 43-40, Gard adjusted his team’s approach to ensure Happ had more help inside. Passing lanes opened to players beyond the arc when the Terps attempted to double-team Happ, especially after Fernando picked up his fourth foul with 3:50 to go.

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After hitting over Smith with 4:37 to play, Ford beat Maryland’s zone again less than two minutes later when Smith attempted to help Fernando with Happ inside. Leaning into Fernando in the paint, Happ slung a pass to the wing, where Ford was waiting to hit the three.

“When we did touch Ethan, we stood a lot early,” Gard said. “We talk about finding the eyes of the passer, get in an alley where he can find you. And we did a better job of that. And then obviously, you’ve got to make shots, or all that gets thrown out.”

And the Badgers did make shots. After shooting 3-for-8 from distance in the first half — including a last-second three before intermission to draw within five — they went 6-for-10 on 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Terps’ offense couldn’t overcome the prolonged absence of their two best big men. Smith and Fernando made three of their five second-half shots, but the rest of the team was 7-for-24 from the field.

In the first meeting between the sides this season, Maryland led by as much as 21. That was enough to weather Wisconsin’s barrage of 11 second-half 3-pointers that nearly completed the comeback.

On Friday, the Terps’ largest lead was nine, which meant less of a cushion against the Badgers’ nine triples. Instead, locked in a tight game with Fernando and Smith in foul trouble, Turgeon had to shake up his defense in an attempt to stay afloat.

Turgeon predicted pregame that Maryland would have to pick its poison against Happ and Wisconsin’s myriad of distance shooters. And while Happ himself had a pedestrian game — 6-of-14 from the floor and 6-of-12 from the line — the Terps couldn’t compete when the three-point attempts hit nothing but net.

“We haven’t practiced [the zone] as much,” Ayala said. “It was just kind of an on-the-fly thing.”