Over the past two seasons, Jahmir Young has lived for big moments. The fifth-year senior has had the ball in his hands with the fate of his hometown team on the line countless times. The past two games, the outcome of those situations hasn’t gone in his favor, but against Iowa on Wednesday night, Maryland’s star guard made sure that a third straight opportunity would not go to waste.
With the game knotted at 67 with just under 10 seconds to play, Young made his move. The lefty used a quick burst to the basket for a go-ahead layup with 1.7 seconds to go. Iowa’s half-court shot attempt missed, and Maryland snuck away with a huge road victory.
Jahmir Young. 🧊
Young scores five points in the final minute, including this game-winner, to lift the #Terps to its first win at Iowa since 2019. Young finished with a game-high 22 points as Maryland picks up its second win in its last three road games pic.twitter.com/blKZBTzJEY
— Inside the Black & Gold (@Insideblackgold) January 25, 2024
“I’m just proud of our unit,” Young said. “For us to be able to come in here on the road and steal this one was big for our group. For us coming in here, we knew that we had to fight. That was the mentality coming into this game, and that’s what we did.”
Young, who poured in 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half, scored the final eight points for Maryland.
The Terps ended the game on a 12-4 run after Iowa’s freshman big Owen Freeman (14 points, nine rebounds) fouled out with 3:07 to go. The Hawkeyes did not make a field goal in the final 5:44.
Maryland, who improved to 12-8 on the season and 4-5 in Big Ten play with the win, trailed by six at halftime and by as many as 10 points in the first half.
The adjustments were evident in the second half, as Iowa entered the game averaging 86 points per game, but was held to only 67 on Wednesday.
“Just being able to adjust during the game is probably one of our biggest jumps as a group,” Young said. “I’m proud of this group. It starts in practice, we get after it in practice and for our group to be that god defensively shows our potential, shows what we can do. We just have to make a run from here.”
Turnovers continued to haunt Maryland early on. The Terps, who committed a season-high 18 turnovers in the two-point loss to Michigan state on Sunday, had five in the first 10 minutes of play against Iowa.
Julian Reese, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, was held scoreless until the 9:41 mark of the first half. Reese, Donta Scott and Jahari Long combined for 19 of Maryland’s 28 first-half points.
“I don’t know what it is, we’re getting off to a little bit of sluggish starts offensively,” Maryland head coach Kevin Willard said. “I’ve got to figure that out, because I think if we could get past that sluggish start we would put ourselves in much better situations.”
Maryland battled through several first-half scoring droughts to only take a six-point deficit into the halftime locker room.
Out of the break, the Terps began to find a rhythm. Maryland started the second half 7-of-11 from the field to chip away at the Iowa lead, before a layup by Reese gave it a 46-45 lead with 12:09 to play.
While Maryland began to find its offensive footing, it also leaned on its defense. Iowa made only one field goal in 10 attempts over a stretch as the Terps briefly climbed ahead.
“I said ‘Hey guys, we’re the number one defensive team in the conference. There’s a reason for that. We’ve just got to keep defending,'” Willard said. “Our whole game plan was to let them shoot as many two’s and if they got some layups so be it, but we were not going to get beat by the three-point line.”
Mission accomplished for Willard. The Hawkeyes shot just 3-14 from three-point range in the game, and were 0-7 from three in the first half. Where they gave up ground was on the interior, as Iowa dominated the paint in the first half, outscoring Maryland 28-14.
Maryland began to close the gap on that margin down the stretch, outscoring the Hawkeyes 20-12 in the paint in the second half. Iowa held a six-point lead with over four minutes to play, but free throws from Reese and Scott trimmed the deficit to two, before Young began his heroics.
“He struggled last game and he was a little upset about that, and he struggled in the first half,” Willard said of Young. “I think the big thing was, he got fouled on one of the layups pretty hard, and it kind of made him mad. Jahmir doesn’t get mad, he’s such a good kid.”
There definitely appeared to be no love lost down the stretch between Young and Iowa, as he connected on back-to-back three-pointers to give Maryland a two-point lead with 38 seconds remaining.
Tony Perkins, who led the way for the Hawkeyes with 20 points, did most of his damage at the free-throw line, going a perfect 11-11. His final two at the charity stripe tied the game at 67 and from there, it was all about Young.
“Last play of the game I was like, no matter what, this shot has got to go up with two seconds,” Willard told Young. “If you miss it, so be it. … Just take it, if you get fouled, if you have to take a tough shot. The last thing we want to do is take a shot with five seconds and now all of a sudden they get a rebound.”
Young seemed to execute the idea from his coach flawlessly, as his game-winning layup sealed the deal on Maryland’s second road victory in three tries.
The Terps will now welcome Nebraska into the Xfinity Center on Saturday. The game will tip at noon on BTN.
“We gotta get a home [win]. We gotta have a good crowd and we gotta protect home court the rest of the way,” Willard said.
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