Wells Wills No. 10 Terps Past Rutgers, 60-50

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Dez Wells scored six straight points after Rutgers tied the game late in the second half and No. 10 Maryland won its sixth straight game, a much-harder than expected 60-50 victory over the Scarlet Knights on Tuesday night.

Wells finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds as the Terps (25-5, 13-4 Big Ten) sent Rutgers (10-20, 2-15) to its 13th straight loss. The skid is the longest since the Scarlet Knights lost 16 straight in 1987-88.

Jake Layman added 14 points for Maryland and freshman Melo Trimble had 10 on a poor shooting night.

Greg Lewis had 12 points and seven rebounds and senior Kadeem Jack had a career-high 16 rebounds in his final home game at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
Maryland appeared somewhat in control after Layman drove the lane for a layup and a 45-38 lead with 11:31 to play.

Rutgers, however, started crashing the boards and it scored the next seven points with the first four coming on rebound putbacks and the final three coming a long shot by senior Myles Mack that tied the game at 45 with 6:02 to play.

That's when Wells took over. The senior hit a spinning bank shot from about 12 feet, made two free throws and then he stole a pass after blowing a rebound and scored on a thunderous dunk for a 51-45 lead with 4:27 to go.

Damonte Dodd capped the 8-0 run with a big dunk with 3:38 to go.

Rutgers, which has not won since beating Wisconsin here in early January, made one more run. Junior Etou hit two free throws, Jack made the first of two and Lewis grabbed the rebound of the second miss to close the gap to 53-50 with under 2 minutes to play.

Wells took over again, sandwiching a layup and two free throws around two free throws by Evan Smotrycz to seal the win.