Maryland picked up its 18th consecutive home win, but it was far from pretty. Maryland overcame a nine-point deficit in the second-half, but Donta Scott stepped up as he finished with 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting from three. Jahmir Young led the way once again with 23 points and a season-high 11 rebounds, marking his first double-double of the season, while Julian Reese struggled offensively as he notched a career-high six blocks.
Maryland blocked a season-best 13 shots in the win, the most for Maryland in a game since blocking the same number against Loyola (Chicago) back on Dec. 8, 2018, as they held Nicholls to 39.4% shooting.
Everything that head coach Kevin Willard, Jahmir Young and Donta Scott said postgame:
Willard on whether timing of exams preceding games impacted Tuesday’s performance
“No, I think what we saw tonight was Tevon [Saddler] had his team really ready to play. I think you’ve got to give Tavon Sadler a ton of credit. They came in. They’re well prepared. They had ten days off to kind of get ready to ran some things that we hadn’t seen. I think this is more about Tevon and Nicholls than it is anything else.”
Young on bringing energy to post-exam games
“Just trying to bring our energy as much as we can in practice with exams going on might be a little mentally fatigued, but we got to push through. We know we got games coming up, so it’s no excuse for us to fall short, o let a team come in here and get a win. But we started off slow. He was able to fight back. [Donta], he was big tonight, he led us on both sides of the floor, so without his leadership, I don’t know how we would’ve went, we’re just glad we was able to come out the win.”
Willard on Jahari Long’s three-point success
“Jahari’s been doing some good things. I expect a lot from Jahari because I think, I know what he has inside him. His issue is there’s times where he just mentally kind of relaxes. And it hurts him and it hurts us.”
Young on Jahari Long’s three-point success
“I feel like that was big. He’s been having great practices so for him to knock down shots like that is no surprise. But we’re just happy for him to be able to contribute like we know he can, get out there, hit open ones and really just, he helped us with our energy. He helped us on the defensive end as well, it wasn’t just the threes, so for him to come in and do that was big and it was huge for this win.”
Willard on Donta Scott’s three-point shooting
“I’ve been talking to Donta for the last week, and he, you know, Donta’s been phenomenal in practice. He’s been our best player in practice, and then he goes out in games, he just, he hasn’t brought the same energy that he’s brought in practice, and I just wanted him to focus on being the Donta Scott who plays hard, runs the floor, gets rebounds, does some things that really help the team and I thought that would help him offensively and I think it did.”
Willard on Julian Reese’s offensive struggles, defensive success
“Ju’s been really good all year defensively. He just, he struggled a little bit tonight offensively, but I was proud of him.”
Willard on coming off one game in 13 days
“I might have gave these guys a little bit too much time off, but we really don’t have a break after this game. So again, you got to give Nicholls some credit. They came in and played really hard and made some shots early that kind of got them going. We’ve been playing well and I thought we did what we had to do defensively. [Julian] had a tough night. I mean, if [Julian] has his normal night, it’s probably a much different story. He just struggled a little bit but that’s going to happen every once in a while. When one of your best players struggles, other guys stepped up and I thought, you know, obviously Jahmir [Young] and Donta [Scott] did.”
Willard on Maryland’s second-half success attacking the basket
“We’re not a team that should take 27 three-pointers. And I think there’s times where we just get a little trigger-happy. We got some good looks early and then we gotta kinda, we gotta realize that sometimes like you gotta do some things to give yourself a bucket every once in a while. Like Jordan [Geronimo] had a big, huge offensive rebound then got fouled late in the game. Like sometimes, guys need to not look to make threes to kinda get them going. Sometimes you just gotta get an offensive rebound, a fast break layup, something simple. And I think that’s where Jahmir has gotten really good is that he kinda, he knows how to kind of get himself going. Some of these guys are still trying to learn how to get themselves going.”
Willard on level of concern with free-throws
“Well, [Julian] missed eight of them so not that much.”
Young on level of concern with Maryland’s free-throw shooting
“We know in league play and games moving forward, we’re going to have to knock those down. Tonight was just an off night from the line. We’ve been shooting the ball great from the line. I feel like guys had an off night from the line, but I feel like they’re going to pick it up right where they left off before. So no concern. Just keep getting the reps up in practice and keep being confident at the line and they’re going to fall.”
Willard on whether his team is more equipped to play on the road vs. UCLA
“Yeah, I mean, I’m hoping to play better on the road. I would like not to play at 8:30 at night when we have to travel tomorrow, but I don’t think the Big Ten really cares about that. I guess this is going to be the way we do it now that we have four West Coast teams. I guess we’re going to play an 8:30 game and then have to travel the next day and then play a game on the West Coast so I’m interested to see how this works out.”
Scott on his performance during the late second-half run
“I felt nothing but energy. I know that my team was down a little bit. It wasn’t making shots that they normally make and I know that I had to be a leader and I had to step up. And try to get these guys together. And even if they wasn’t trying to hear it, I’m still going to try to motivate them. And try to get them to get going. But my mindset was just go out there and bring something to the floor and that’s what I brought.”
Scott on his health status
“It wasn’t nothing bad. Just cramped up a little bit. Maybe a little bit too much water or something. But, you know, I’ll be better next time. But, I was glad that I was able to get back on the court and finish the game and help my team out.”
Willard on the message during the second timeout in the second half
“I think we got up five and then we missed a layup, missed an open three. It’s a little bit of, of kind of what happened to us early in the year. I think the timeout was more or less just like, hey guys, we gotta grow up a little bit and just sit down and guard and stop letting our offense dictate our defense.”
Young on the message during the timeout when Nicholls went up nine in the 2nd half
“We [were] really just looking back at just reflecting on what we [were] doing wrong. They [were] early, I think there were five, six or seven from three early or something like that. So for us to try to run them off the line, try to limit them to one shot, 15 getting downhill, spinning, doing a lot of ball fakes. So just trying to stay down and just stay patient on the defensive end, just being solid, that was the biggest thing. So just us getting stops, limiting them to one shot, just getting out in transition and getting easy ones.”
Scott on building on offensive success
“Just keep shooting. That’s all my coach tells me to do. Just keep shooting, have confidence in, I’ve been having really good practices these last few days. And I’ve just been going out there with a different energy. I think it has a lot to do with my energy and effort. And also helps when people talk trash to me because, you know, I’m from Philly, so it kind of turns me up.”
Scott on his defensive matchups against Nicholls F Diante Smith
“I felt like when they started talking trash, it just elevated me a lot more and at that point I just, I wanted all the smoke. I wanted people to fear me. I wanted people to try to go at me on the court, so they know that they can’t when I stop them.”
Young on reconnecting with Nicholls HC Tevon Saddler
“I was able to give him a hug a couple of times just. Just happy for him, happy for him to be in that position. It was a homecoming for him, so for him to be able to come home and play at Maryland because he was on our bench last year was kind of weird, but for him to be able to see what he’s doing and how far he’s got, he’s only going to keep going further, so I’m just happy for him.”
Scott on Maryland’s 13 blocks in the win, whether Nicholls adjusted
“I don’t think they really changed too much. I think we kind of just elevated our defense. So, that kind of helped with the blocks. And then you got to give it up to them. They really shot the ball well tonight and I think that’s the thing that they kind of changed on. They knew that they were shooting the ball well, so they tried to get to their spots and continued doing that.
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