After inbounding the ball up one with 28 seconds left, Maryland men’s basketball swung the ball around the court looking for someone to seal the game. The ball found its way into Jahmir Young’s hands, and he took on the pressure dribbling to his right and launching a fadeaway three.
The ball swished through the net, and the packed Xfinity Center crowd erupted as the lead extended to four.
Young had a game high 24 points on 9-20 shooting as the Terps extended their unbeaten record to 8-0, beating No. 16 Illinois in College Park, 71-66.
“Yeah that wasn’t what I drew up, it sure looked good,” coach Kevin Willard said. “But at the end of the day you want to put the ball in your point guard’s hands and he made a great play.”
In Maryland’s first conference home game in front of a near sold-out crowd on Friday night, other Maryland players were feeding off of the energy as well. Senior guard Hakim Hart was hot from behind the arc, putting up 17 points on 5-6 shooting from three. Senior forward Donta Scott also scored in double digits, putting up 12 points of his own.
With noise and energy at a fever pitch at tip off, Young sent the crowd into a frenzy with a three pointer for the first points of the game. It began a back-and-forth first couple of minutes, with Coleman Hawkins scoring 7 early points to give Illinois an early 14-11 lead.
“We was definitely feeding off [of] them a lot, they brought the energy to help us go that extra pinch,” Young said. “I felt like we came off strong, and they were a big reason for that.”
Maryland caused the Fighting Illini to slow down on offense, with the defense constantly switching from zone to man, causing a four minute long scoring drought, prompting the Illini to a 1-9 shooting stretch in the middle of the first half.
During this drought the Terps embarked on an offensive explosion, using a 17-2 run to secure a double digit lead. Hart scored the first 8 points of this run, and Young contributed as well, going 6-11 from the field in the first half.
Illinois responded to close the half, going on a 9-0 run to cut the Maryland lead to three. But the first half was Hart’s time to shine, as he hit two more threes, going 4-5 from three point range in the first half to extend the lead back to two possessions.
The Terps overcame pressure to hold onto their lead in the final two minutes of the first half. They went on a 7-3 run, as Scott hit a pull-up mid range jumper before Young hit a floater and a three from the top of the key to close out the half up 41-34.
Young’s three was one of Maryland’s seven in the first half, with six of them coming from the duo of Young and Hart. Illinois couldn’t find a rhythm from three in the first period, shooting just 3-9 from deep.
Both teams exchanged baskets to start the second half as the Terps looked to preserve their lead. Illinois struggled to cut into the lead, despite a highlight reel worthy driving dunk from senior guard Terrence Shannon Jr.
Illinois stepped up its perimeter defense to start the second half, as the team forced Maryland to shoot just 0-2 from three and 3-10 from the field early on. The Illini stole some momentum to storm back, using a 9-0 run to cut the Terps’ advantage to just one point at 55-54 with 9:02 to play.
“I loved our D,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “Hold em to 35% the second half and 25 from the line, you should win even on the road.”
With under five minutes to go, neither side seemed to shy away from a big moment. Another Hart three pointer from the left wing put Maryland up five, but a layup from Hawkins and a pull-up three pointer from freshman guard Skyy Clark tied the game up at 62.
The lead kept going from three to one, with sophomore forward Julian Reese scoring his first field goal of the game on a putback layup with under two minutes to go. Despite a response from Hawkins, Young’s three put the game out of reach as Maryland went on to win.
