COLLEGE PARK — This one had all the makings of a second straight blowout defeat for the Maryland men's basketball team at home, a game that seemingly had enough ingredients for another distasteful recipe to give coach Mark Turgeon, his players and their fans a collective case of indigestion.

Seemingly on the verge of wiping out all the positive vibes that resulted from a 7-0 start in a matter of days, the Terps did what they have done for most of the season — coming back from a double-digit second-half deficit to beat Oklahoma State, 71-70, on Saturday night at Xfinity Center.

“This group of mine, it's amazing what they do,” coach Mark Turgeon said. “We've got all these young kids playing and we keep battling. We're down 12 [with 12:11 to go] and they've got a great point guard. And we kept coming. Everybody in our circle, on our team, knew we were going to win the game.”

Maryland (8-1) took the lead on a pair of free throws by junior point guard Melo Trimble with 9.4 seconds left, and escaped with the victory after sophomore guard Jawun Evans' tip-in attempt of his own missed baseline runner with a second left was ruled to have been taken after the final buzzer.

“It's kind of been status quo for the Terps here — fall behind, come back. Give them a lot of credit. Very well-coached and they've got a great player who's continually made plays over and over,” said first-year Oklahoma State coach Brad Underwood.

Joked Trimble, who led the Terps with 13 points and six assists, “I think we just like to have the games close and have everyone worried, so they can stay tuned to our games.”

It set off another wild on-court celebration for the Terps, similar to the one Maryland had last month after beating Georgetown by a point Nov. 15 at the Verizon Center and a one-point win over Kansas State in the championship game of the Barclays Center Classic a week ago in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Asked what it's like to be in those situations, Trimble added: “It's nerve-wracking for any team. Normally we practice that. But almost every game this year has been a nailbiter for us. It's good for us to go through this right now because the further you get [in the NCAA tournament] the closer they are.”

Trimble also scored the game-winning points with a pair of free throws to beat the Hoyas and a driving layup in the closing seconds to beat the Wildcats. In this case, too, Underwood and the Cowboys knew exactly who was getting the ball and what he was going to try to do.

“I didn't expect him to shoot a jump shot,” Underwood said of Trimble, who had missed eight of 12 shots, including all five of his 3-pointers. "We were sitting in a zone. Good play, set a little double screen, we had our bigs step up. Got fouled. It wasn't going to be in anybody else's hands and it wasn't where I expected him to pass it. A lot of credit to Melo and Mark put him in a good spot to make the play.”

On Saturday, Oklahoma State (6-2) had built its lead by hitting several tough 3-pointers with the shot clock about to expire, including one by redshirt junior wing Jeffrey Carroll to give the Cowboys a 58-48 lead. A pair of free throws by senior guard Phil Forte III had pushed the advantage to 12.

Turgeon said that it wasn't difficult forgetting Tuesday's 73-59 loss to Pittsburgh by the way the Cowboys had taken control of the game.

“The hard part was the shot clock going down and hitting the 3's. [They] hit one in the first half, Forte on the fade on the inbounds pass which we knew was coming. He just made a tough shot,” Turgeon said. “That was the hard part, just staying positive.”

Note: Redshirt sophomore forward Ivan Bender did not play because of a bone bruise in his left leg suffered against Pittsburgh.

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