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LINCOLN, Neb. — Melo Trimble scored 21 points and Dez Wells made a big shot with 8.8 seconds left, helping No. 10 Maryland hold off Nebraska 64-61 on Sunday night.
Wells had 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Jake Layman added 11 points as the Terrapins (26-5, 14-4 Big Ten) won their seventh straight game.
Shavon Shields had 26 points and Terran Petteway added 19 for the Cornhuskers (13-17, 5-13), who lost their eighth straight.
Shields’ three-point play with 43 seconds left pulled the Huskers within one point at 62-61. The Terps called timeout with 11 seconds left and 4 on the shot clock. Wells took the inbound pass and hit his 18-footer from the wing.
Shields missed his last-second 3-point try, giving Maryland a much-needed road win for its NCAA Tournament resume.
Nebraska outscored Maryland 23-21 at the free-throw line, but made only 12 of 22 in the second half.
No. 6 Wisconsin 72, No. 23 Ohio St. 48
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Do-everything center Frank Kaminsky called it a statement game. If that’s the case, then the point clearly was: Watch out for Wisconsin.
Kaminsky scored 20 points and Bronson Koenig touched off a 16-0 second-half run with two 3-pointers to help the sixth-ranked Badgers cruise to a 72-48 victory over No. 23 Ohio State on Sunday.
“This was kind of a statement game for us going into the Big Ten Tournament, beating a good team on their home floor,” said Kaminsky, a 7-foot senior who’s a leading candidate for national player of the year. “We’re really excited about what’s next.”
The Badgers (28-3, 16-2) had already clinched the regular-season title and top seed in the conference tournament. In a hostile environment, they tied a school record for league wins while extending the best start in team history.
“I’m proud of them,” coach Bo Ryan said. “You look at the last four games that we had and we knew that we had to get at least two of them to clinch it and we get three out of the four.”
Koenig, averaging 7.6 points, had 15 and Nigel Hayes scored 10 for Wisconsin, winners of three in a row and 13 of 14.
Down by as many as 17 points, the Buckeyes (22-9, 11-7) pulled to 46-39 on a 9-0 run with D’Angelo Russell, who finished with 17, scoring the first six points and then passing inside to Jae’Sean Tate, who had 13, for a three-point play.
But on consecutive possessions — the Badgers had three offensive rebounds on the second one — Koenig hit timely 3-pointers from the same spot on the left wing in front of the Wisconsin bench.
“Huge,” Ryan said. “That’s Bronson. He’s a gamer, no question about that.”
No. 11 N. Iowa 69, Illinois St. 60
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Seth Tuttle had 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists, leading No. 11 Northern Iowa back from an 18-point first-half deficit in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship game.
Nate Buss scored 15 points and the Panthers (30-3) took control with a 25-4 run that erased a 36-22 halftime deficit. Jeremy Morgan had three 3-pointers in the run and Tuttle, the Valley player of the year and tournament MVP, added eight points.
Daishon Knight had 16 points for fourth-seeded Illinois State (21-12), which needed a win to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. Knight had 25 points in the Redbirds’ semifinal upset of top seed Wichita State.
Northern Iowa won the title for the third time in seven years and has won 19 of 20 games.
No. 22 SMU 67, Tulsa 62
DALLAS — Markus Kennedy scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half and SMU won its first league title in 22 years, the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship.
The victory gave Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown and the Mustangs (24-6, 15-3) another item for their NCAA Tournament resume a year after getting snubbed and reaching the NIT championship game.
SMU is looking for its first NCAA berth since winning the old Southwest Conference in 1993.
James Woodard scored all of his career-high 30 points on 3-pointers for the Golden Hurricane (21-9, 14-4), who settled for second place after starting 10-0 in the conference but finishing 4-4 under first-year coach Frank Haith.