Maryland men’s basketball guard Melo Trimble seemed primed for a big scoring performance against Penn State on Tuesday night. The junior tallied eight of the Terps’ first 10 points and notched 10 through 16 minutes.
Trimble, however, faded down the stretch. He scored one point in the second half as No. 21 Maryland’s offense went stagnant, falling to the Nittany Lions, 70-64, in their first loss away from Xfinity Center in 10 tries.
“He’s a great point guard, and he uses ball screens really well,” said Penn State guard Tony Carr, who guarded Trimble. “We just wanted to limit him off the ball screen and just make things difficult for him.”
While Trimble has started slow this season, he’s often bounced back to help Maryland finish on top. Trimble has made a number of game-winning and game-sealing shots this season and throughout his three-year Terps career. He averages 15.7 points per game in Big Ten play – the eighth-most in the conference.
Trimble helped Maryland stick around with the Nittany Lions at the start. He began with an and-one layup and drained the free throw to become the 17th Maryland player to score 1,500 career points and give coach Mark Turgeon’s squad its only lead.
The Upper Marlboro native finished a layup in transition before making his lone 3-pointer of the contest about three minutes later. As Penn State was pulling away at the end of the first half, Trimble made his final field goal — a layup — with about five minutes remaining.
But when Penn State took a 12-point lead with about 11 minutes left, Trimble had no answer. He shot 0-for-6 from the field in the final 20 minutes. The Nittany Lions studied Trimble’s ball-screen effectiveness on film, so they double-teamed him when he received the screen, not allowing him to find driving lanes.
“I was trying to get my other guys going on the court,” Trimble said. “Justin [Jackson] is a really good scorer, and Kevin [Huerter] is a really good shooter. I was trying to get them the ball and … get them open looks. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”
Trimble has been a menace at getting to the free throw line in his Terps career, but his production from the charity stripe has decreased since he shot 86.3 percent at the line his freshman year. He drove to the basket and flailed his arms while trying to draw contact throughout the second half Tuesday, but the referees didn’t call many fouls.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound guard drew a whistle once in the second frame and made one of two free throws.
“He forced a couple,” Turgeon said. “He’s doing what I asked him to do. I said drive the ball. Melo’s trying hard.”
Trimble usually handles the ball in the final five minutes, but he attempted just one shot, a missed 3-pointer, during that stretch Tuesday.
Maryland, which shot a season-low 33.9 percent against the Nittany Lions, is 30-8 in games decided by six or fewer points in Trimble’s career. With Trimble’s shortcomings in the past two contests, though, the Terps lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
“It was a strange night,” Turgeon said. “He was trying to make a comeback and trying to inspire the guys.”
