COLUMBUS, OHIO — When it was all over — the 10 ties, the six lead changes and the nail-biting finish — Melo Trimble could flash his customary smile. The Terrapins men’s basketball guard had hit a crucial 3-pointer with 2:06 left Sunday despite struggling from deep for most of the day.

So when he addressed reporters outside the visiting locker room at Value City Arena, he looked back and grinned while talking about the latest of his clutch shots since joining the Terps as a rookie last season.

Coach Mark Turgeon ran a play for his star point guard with the Terps up 57-55, despite Trimble’s 1-for-8 line from three-point range to that point. He buried the shot, giving the No. 8 Terps a five-point lead they would hold on to in a 66-61 win before an announced 16,592.

“Coach Turgeon relies on me to make those kind of shots even when my shot’s not falling,” Trimble said.

READ MORE: Postgame grades for Terps victory against Ohio State

On the possession before Trimble’s shot, the fifth-year coach had put his trust in the sophomore’s running mate. Guard Rasheed Sulaimon, who hadn’t made a field goal through the first 36 minutes, canned a long ball after Ohio State trimmed the lead to one.

The 3-pointers would be the last made field goals for the Terps, who sealed the win at the free-throw line. Trimble led the way with a game-high 20 points on 7-for-16 shooting (2-for-10 from deep), while forwards Jake Layman (16) and Robert Carter Jr. (10) and center Diamond Stone (10) all joined him in double digits.

“When the game is on the line, [Trimble] makes plays,” Turgeon said. “He did it today. He’s confident enough to keep shooting. … So we kept running plays for him. Ran one for ‘Sheed, then ran one for him. We have a lot of confidence in him.”

Just more than two weeks earlier, the Terps (19-3, 8-2 Big Ten) had clobbered Ohio State (14-9, 6-4) by 35 points in College Park. But the Buckeyes weren’t going to fold in the rematch, not a building in which they had dominated the Terps the past two seasons.

After suffering a 16-point loss at Value City Arena in 2013, the Terps were blown out by 24 on Jan. 29, 2015. It was their worst defeat of the year, a mark the Terps hadn’t forgotten Sunday.

“We really wanted to win here today,” Turgeon said. “They beat us up here pretty good the last two years. It’s good to fly home and have a good taste in your mouth one time when we come to Columbus.”

Perhaps no player wanted the road win over Ohio State more than Layman, a senior and the lone starter who had endured both losses.

His 16 points came on seven field-goal attempts, with none louder than a two-handed slam on the other end of an alley-oop pass from Sulaimon that made Carter stand up from the bench and bounce up and down while waving a towel.

“It got the bench hyped,” Layman said. “Got the whole team going. It kind of got us on an uproar.”

It came in a 6-0 Terps spurt to end the first half, which proved to be crucial in a game in which no team ever led by more than seven points.

Turgeon’s squad struggled from the floor out of the break, going 4-for-17 before the pair of 3-pointers. But their defense kept them in it, holding the Buckeyes to 35.6 shooting for the game.

It allowed Turgeon a chance to put the Terps’ fate in the hands of the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year.

“Like Melo’s been since he’s been here, he’s a winner,” Turgeon said. “He wins games for us.”