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As successful as the Maryland men’s basketball team has been in its 106-year history, the Terps had never started a season 15-1.

As good as he has been as a Terp, Melo Trimble had never hit a game-winner in less than two college seasons and said he never even hit one as a high school star.

That changed Saturday against Wisconsin in what can only be called a Melo-dramatic 63-60 victory at the Kohl Center.

A 25-foot shot from well beyond the top of the key by the sophomore point guard with 1.2 seconds remaining silenced the sellout crowd, stopped a last-minute comeback by the Badgers and started an on-court celebration with Trimble’s teammates after a desperation heave by Nigel Hayes fell well short.

“We were really good from the eight-minute mark to the four-minute mark, and then we held on,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. “And of course, Melo is Melo, we all expect him to make it. I told him I didn’t love the shot. I wish he’d been driving. But he’s done that his whole life.

“It was a great win for us. Any road win is a great win.”

With the voices of longtime coaching mentors Larry Brown and Roy Williams reverberating in his head, Turgeon chose not to call a timeout after Wisconsin guard Bronson Koenig hit a step-back 3-pointer with 22 seconds left to complete an 8-0 run for the Badgers and tie the game.

Nor did Turgeon call a set play. He simply put the game in the steady hands and steely nerves of Trimble, who in one span of a little over two minutes of the second half scored all of Maryland’s points in a 10-1 run that erased a 47-46 deficit.

After sitting out the entire second half of Wednesday’s blowout win over Rutgers with a hamstring injury, Trimble did not come out after halftime against the Badgers. He scored 13 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to go with five assists in 35 minutes.

“There’s not a lot of coaching,” Turgeon said of the final possession. “I knew I wasn’t going to call a timeout. My mentors told me not to do that, so I don’t do that. We just got out of his way. He’s special. He does those kind of things. Not a lot of coaching. Give it to your best player.”

Trimble didn’t hesitate despite earlier missing a pair of straightaway 3-pointers that were even less contested than the one he made over the hands of Wisconsin guard Zak Showalter.

“I knew when Coach Turgeon didn’t call a timeout he wanted me to take the last shot,” Trimble said. “I was feeling it. The previous shots I missed were right on target, but I knew I was going to make this one. … Before practice and after practice, I always practice shots like that. Today it came in, my practicing.”

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Said Turgeon, “Don’t forget how great Bronson’s shot was, too. Jake [Layman] was shaking hands [playing tight defense], and it was the exact same shot. That took a lot of guts to take that shot, to make that one, too. It was a big-time shot.”

It was the ninth straight victory for Maryland (15-1, 4-0 Big Ten) and erased the mark of three other Terps teams that started 14-1 only to drop their next game, including last year’s squad. The loss was the third conference defeat for Wisconsin (9-7, 1-3), which has lost the three by a total of 10 points. Five of the losses for the Badgers this season have been by three points or fewer.

“It’s pretty disheartening. Our margin of error is microscopic. We’ve just got to find ways to win, not find ways to lose,” Koenig said.

The second-half performance and last-second shot by Trimble overshadowed the biggest storyline coming into the afternoon — the return of freshman center Diamond Stone to his home state and to a program he spurned when he chose to play for the Terps.

Booed nearly every time he touched the ball, and constantly heckled by the student section, Stone was nervous early but settled down in the second half. He finished with 11 points to continue his streak of nine straight games in double figures. Stone made four of five shots and also pulled down four rebounds.

“For Diamond, I thought it showed a lot of matureness,” Trimble said. “I think if any player would go back to their hometown like that [as an opponent], it would kind of get out of control. Diamond just went out there and played like he normally does. He didn’t let the crowd affect him. Of course it was extra motivation for him, but it was for us, too, because we had to have his back.”

Truth be told, Trimble played like he normally does as well. And in keeping with his low-key personality, Trimble seemed more excited about Turgeon’s role in Maryland’s historic start than his own heroics.

“It’s special, because of all the things Coach Turgeon went through before I got to Maryland,” Trimble said as he walked across the court long after the game ended. “To get off to this start with him, it means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to him, and I know we want to get better.”

Turgeon wouldn’t get caught up in his record-setting start, either, given that the Terps have a quick turnaround before they play at Michigan on Tuesday night. Still, he understands its significance.

“We’re obviously very proud of that,” Turgeon said. “It wasn’t one of our goals and we really didn’t talk about it. We really had no idea until they told us after the game. The history that we’ve had, the great teams that we’ve had, to be off to the best 16-game start is good for this team, but I’m just glad that we won today.”

In what has already been an outstanding career, it might have been Trimble’s most dramatic performance.

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