Maryland moved to 8-0 to open up the Kevin Willard era, defeating Illinois 71-66 in the Big Ten opener for both top-25 teams. Charlotte transfer point guard Jahmir Young scored a game-high 24 points, none more important than the final three to put the Terps up four with 14 seconds left to play.
While the Terps were tested for a full 40 minutes for the first time this season, they still led for over 32 minutes and never trailed in the second half.
The Terps will next travel to Wisconsin, where they will play the Badgers next Tuesday night in their Big Ten road opener.
Here are three takeaways from the Terps' first Big Ten win of the season.
Jahmir Young leads the way
Charlotte transfer Jahmir Young stepped up and led the Terps to their first big win of the Kevin Willard era, scoring a game-high 24 points while also adding four rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Young almost single handedly kept the Terps in it early, hitting a three for the first points of the game and then scoring seven of Maryland's first 11 points of the game. He would finish an efficient 6-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-6 from deep to finish the first half with 15 points.
Things weren't quite as easy for Young and the Terps in the second half, as Illinois ratcheted up the defensive pressure. He finished the final 20 minutes just 3-of-9 from the field. But in the end, no basket was more important than Young's final one, a made three-pointer with 14 seconds left in the game to put the Terps up four points. Coming off of a screen set by Julian Reese, Young buried the three from the top of the key for the dagger.
Young is still learning how to be more of a distributor first, but his leadership and ability as a scorer was the difference in the game versus the Illini.
A tale of two halves
The Terps and Illini came out of the gate hot, with both teams combining for 11 straight made field goal attempts over the first five minutes of the game. They played at a frenetic pace early on with the Terps building a 12-point lead in the first half as they shot 7-of-15 from three in the opening 20 minutes, including Hakim Hart who shot 4-of-5 from deep. The Terps took a seven-point, 41-34 lead into the locker room after scoring an efficient 1.32 points per possession.
Things slowed down in the second half, however, as the Terps got a heavy dose of Illini big man Dain Dainja with both Julian Reese and Patrick Emilien in foul trouble. Illinois also gave the Terps a dose of their own medicine, creating scoring by forcing turnovers and crashing the offensive glass. The Terps scored just .968 points per possession in the second half and allowed the Illini to twice tie the game up, but they never trailed coming out of the break.
Terps get much needed test
It has been well documented already this season how the Terps had blown out their first seven opponents and have trailed for just a handful of minutes while going wire-to-wire in four games. So it stood to reason that the Terps would finally be tested by the 16th ranked Illini.
Illinois took it to Maryland early in the game, going shot for shot and holding a three-point lead early in the opening half. But an 11-0 run that included a personal 8-0 run by senior wing Hakim Hart gave the Terps the lead back and the Illini would never regain it.
The Illini fought hard in the second half, twice tying the score and staying within a possession until the final minute of the game, but the Terps just seemed to always come up with a big play or have an answer, whether a big three from Hart or the final dagger three from Young.
This win should give the Terps the confidence that they can close out tight games moving forward. And with the Big Ten loaded once again, they are bound to find themselves in a number of nip and tuck games as the season goes on.
