As an announced 14,113 filed out of Xfinity Center on Sunday night, Terrapins men’s basketball guards Melo Trimble and Dez Wells remained near midcourt waiting to go through a television interview.
The two players, each instrumental in the Terps’ thrilling 68-67 comeback win over Northwestern that night, hugged when they first met near the center of the floor. Then Trimble, a freshman, and Wells, a senior, stood shoulder to shoulder, talking and laughing as the rest of the arena emptied.
“It’s like a little brother-big brother thing,” Trimble said. “He lets me make mistakes, and he gets on me, and I get on him too.”
But Trimble and Wells’ relationship has been more than just a story of mentorship. It also has created a late-game dynamic for the Terps that has played a large part in their surprising 18-3 start to the season and return to national relevance.
With both guards proving capable of scoring and creating in one-on-one situations, coach Mark Turgeon now has two different players he can run his offense through down the stretch of close contests. Such a balance was on full display Sunday as the duo helped the Terps erase an 11-point deficit in the final three minutes, 22 seconds to escape with a victory.
Trimble finished with a game-high 27 points and Wells had the game-winning putback with 1.4 seconds remaining off Trimble’s missed 3-pointer. The two players scored 19 of the team’s final 22 points against the Wildcats. In the final four minutes, Trimble scored seven points and Wells had six.
“I’m really happy for Dez that he got the tip-in,” Turgeon said. “And Melo was Melo doing what he does.”
The only points in the final nine minutes of the game scored by any Terp besides the duo came via Jake Layman’s 3-pointer, which Wells assisted.
And this weekend’s come-from-behind shocker wasn’t the only time the Terps’ two most notable players guided the team through a sticky spot. In a close game against Arizona State on Nov. 24, Trimble scored a career-high 31 points, but Turgeon put the ball in Wells’ hands down the stretch to close out the win.
Then in a double-overtime win at Michigan State on Dec. 30, Wells hit a game-tying three at the end of regulation while Trimble finished with a team-best 17 points.
Trimble has proven to be the Terps’ most prolific scorer, a role Wells held the past two seasons, and the freshman’s solid free-throw shooting helps him pile up points late. Meanwhile, Wells, the veteran, has maintained the flair for drama that has defined his time in College Park.
“We just have a never die attitude,” Wells said when asked about his most recent late-game heroics. “We can do anything we put our minds to when we stay focused throughout the game.”
Wells and Trimble together have formed a successful combination. So far this season, the Terps are 4-0 in games decided by five points or fewer after going 4-7 in such contests during last season’s disappointing campaign.
Trimble was still a senior at Bishop O’Connell High School then, and Wells was doing what he could to pull a seemingly dysfunctional Terps team through its final ACC season. Wells led the team in scoring last season and often dominated possession for the final 10 minutes of games.
Sometimes it worked well, such as the night he hit a game-winning 3-pointer against Miami last January. On other occasions, Wells didn’t get the support he needed for the team to pull out a win. Against Duke, for instance, Wells scored 17 second-half points to help the Terps erase a late deficit, but the Terps still suffered a narrow loss as the rest of the team went cold in the closing minutes.
During a blistering start to this season, though, the Terps’ leader has had a pal to help carry the load.
“Last year, the team really relied on Dez, but this year I can see Dez leaning on me as the freshman point guard,” Trimble said. “That’s a lot of weight on my shoulders, but I can overcome it.”
Guard Melo Trimble lays in a shot during Maryland’s 68-67 win over Northwestern at Xfinity Center on Jan. 25, 2015.