INDIANAPOLIS — Melo Trimble had been in this moment before, the ball in hands with his team’s fate on the line in the final seconds of a Terrapins men’s basketball game.
Twice during the regular season the guard had hoisted a 3-pointer near the buzzer during a tie game. Once he’d watched the ball fly through the net. Once his miss forced an overtime period. But never had his team lost in that situation this year.
So despite missing 12 of his first 14 shots in the Big Ten semifinals Saturday, Trimble received a pass with 10 seconds left facing a one-point deficit and bounded down the court.
This was his moment to shine. He knew it. His teammates knew it.
About seven seconds later, Trimble lay flat on the court, his hands covering his eyes. Guard Rasheed Sulaimon bent over at midcourt staring at the hardwood. Coach Mark Turgeon turned to the scorer’s table in frustration.
Trimble wasn’t the hero Saturday. He was the goat in the No. 3-seed Terps’ 64-61 loss to No. 2-seed Michigan State, his 13th miss of the night more glaring than the 12 that had come before it.
“Everybody wants to take the last shot and if you miss the last shot, you’re devastated,” Sulaimon said. “You feel like you let the team down. But that’s not the case. Melo has put us on his back numerous times this year.”
Against Wisconsin on Jan. 9, Trimble elevated from NBA- range before the buzzer and drilled the game-winning 3-pointer in a 63-60 win. He tried to do the same 10 days later against Northwestern with the score knotted at 48, but his long ball fell short. Instead, he lifted the Terps to a win in overtime.
On both those occasions, though, Trimble was having a solid days from the floor. When he sprinted down the court in the final moments Saturday, he was 1-for-7 from beyond the arc.
“Coach Turgeon didn’t really like the two threes [earlier in the season], so I just decided to go to the rack,” Trimble said. “I should’ve just trusted my instinct and just do me and tried the three. But it happens and I’ve moved on.”
Despite Trimble missing his first nine shots, the Terps hung with the Spartans all game. They clawed back from a 12-point deficit to knot the game on Trimble’s lone 3-pointer with 10:26 left.
But they wouldn’t convert another field goal until Trimble’s layup with 14 seconds left, leaving them in a one-point hole. Michigan State star guard Denzel Valentine missed the front end of a 1-and-1, giving the Terps a shot in the final 10 seconds.
Without a timeout, Trimble took matters into his own hands.
“We had a chance,” Turgeon said. “Melo got all the way to the rim. Robert [Carter Jr.] had his hands on the ball. Just wasn’t meant to be.”
Trimble drove left into the lane and made contact with Spartans forward Deyonta Davis as his left-handed layup fell well short of the rim. The Terps bench screamed for a foul call they wouldn’t get.
“The refs started calling fouls going down the stretch once coach Turgeon got the [technical foul], so I thought me getting to the rim they would call the foul,” Trimble said.
Without any free throws for Trimble, Valentine headed to other end to make two of his own with 0.8 seconds left. Trimble would get a last second heave, one he also thought he was fouled on, but the refs didn’t’ react.
Instead, Trimble walked toward the locker room a game short of the Big Ten finals for the second straight season. But his teammates are adamant they want the sophomore to have the ball in hands if the situation presents itself in the NCAA tournament.
“We are going to have confidence in him to take that shot again,” Sulaimon said. “The thing I love about him is he never shies away from the moment.”
