“Melo is Melo” is a household phrase among the Maryland men’s basketball team. Coaches and players use it to describe star junior Melo Trimble, a soft-spoken, unflappable guard with the innate ability to make clutch plays in late-game situations. Over his two-plus-year career in College Park, the Terps are 30-6 in games decided by six points or less.
So even when Trimble’s 3-point attempts clanged off the rim, his drives into the lane failed to draw the referee’s whistle and his time on the floor resulted in more turnovers than assists Tuesday night at Ohio State, those around the program trusted the Upper Marlboro native to deliver as the Buckeyes threatened to erase the Terps’ double-digit lead.
“Melo’s a great player,” forward Justin Jackson said. “So regardless if he wasn’t playing well in the first half, I knew at some point Melo was going to be Melo.”
Trimble’s transformation occurred in the waning moments of the Terps’ 77-71 road win. At the final media timeout, coach Mark Turgeon told him to take over. And from there, Trimble scored the team’s final seven points to put the game away.
“Melo was Melo,” Turgeon said. “I wasn’t great tonight. I didn’t help our guys very much. But when you have a player like Melo, you kind of just get out of the way and let him do what he does.”
Trimble’s personal scoring run started with about two minutes to play and Maryland leading, 70-69. With 12 seconds on the shot clock, he found open space at the top of the key, and guard Anthony Cowan passed to him. Without hesitating, Trimble hoisted the 3-point shot and watched it swish through the net, his first triple of the contest in six attempts.
Turgeon said he saw increased confidence from his leader after the trey, and that moxie was apparent two possessions later as the Terps held a two-point lead.
After forward Ivan Bender grabbed the defensive rebound with about a minute to play, he found guard Kevin Huerter, who knew what to do next. He turned to Trimble and handed him the ball.
Huerter also knew he likely wasn’t getting it back.
“Melo is Melo,” Jackson said. “He’s going to have the ball in his hands regardless. I feel like we’ve already established he’s the closer.”
Sure enough, Trimble dribbled up the court and used two screens to penetrate before deciding to back the ball out to the right wing. Isolated with Ohio State forward Jae’Sean Tate, Trimble sprinted past the 6-foot-4, 230-pound junior on his way to rim. With Tate on his hip, Trimble converted a difficult floater to give the Terps a two-possession advantage.
Ohio State missed a jumper and a layup on its ensuing trip, forcing the Buckeyes to intentionally foul. Trimble again found the ball in his hands, this time at the charity stripe, and the 85.4-percent career free throw shooter knocked down a pair to cap his 13-point performance on 5 of 13 shooting.
“We knew he was going to turn around at some point,” Huerter said. “He may have been struggling early, but as we see time and time again he’s always there for us at the end of the game.”
Trimble’s valiant effort down the stretch may have helped some people forget he struggled for much of the game, an outing that included missing eight of his first 11 shots and committing five turnovers.
He lauded Ohio State for his defense but admitted his uncharacteristic shooting woes. There were “a lot” of long-range attempts Trimble thought he’d make. Only one resulted in three points.
“I always play with a lot of confidence,” Trimble said. “If I miss the first one, I shoot the next one. It’s just me staying dialed into the game.”
For the first 25 minutes, much of Maryland’s scoring production came from Jackson, who totaled his second straight double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds. For about the next 10, the Terps scored just 12 points as Ohio State came within three.
At the 5:12 mark, with Maryland up, 66-63, Turgeon replaced Trimble with Cowan. He disliked his veteran’s decision-making. On the Buckeyes next possession, Tate’s layup made it a one-point contest.
The lead grew to three by the time Turgeon huddled his team during the media timeout, but the sixth-year coach wasn’t satisfied with its style of play. So with two minutes and 58 seconds to play, he instructed Trimble to take control.
He needed Melo to be Melo.
