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Indiana regains its footing with 42-36 victory over Maryland

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) – Devine Redding, Tyler Natee and Zander Diamont each rushed for more than 100 yards Saturday and five different Indiana players scored on touchdown runs as the Hoosiers got past Maryland 42-36.

The Hoosiers (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten) snapped a three-game losing streak and took a big step toward becoming bowl-eligible, something they haven’t done in consecutive seasons since 1990 and 1991.

Redding had 17 carries for 130 yards and one score. Natee, the 270-pound freshman running back, ran 18 times for a career-high 111 yards and a TD while Diamont, the backup quarterback had 11 carries for 104 yards and two scores.

Indiana finished with 650 total yards, 414 yards on the ground.

“When you get that running game going, that stuff is easy. When you’re playing one dimensional, it’s a lot easier to get defended,” Indiana coach Kevin Wilson said. “A lot of things that we did today, we wouldn’t have done last week because of the scheme of the (opposing) defense. Some of the things we did were just part of the nature of what we do within the structure.”

Maryland (5-3, 2-3) sure didn’t make it easy in its attempt to earn a bowl-clinching victory. The Terrapins led 21-16 at halftime and 24-23 after a 32-yard field goal with 1:11 left in the third quarter.

But Indiana closed out the quarter with a 15-yard TD run from Mitchell Paige then extended the lead to 35-24 on Natee’s 2-yard plunge with 8:30 left to play.

The Terrapins closed to 35-30 when Perry Hills hurdled a defender for a 5-yard TD run, his second rushing score of the game, but the 2-point conversion pass failed and Maryland couldn’t get any closer.

“We didn’t tackle well, we didn’t execute,” new Maryland coach DJ Durkin said. “We didn’t play at any sort of standard that would help us win a game.”