Jon Graham prepared for Wednesday night’s game against his former team, Penn State, as he always does. He strapped a pair of headphones over his ears and listened to the same pregame playlist. Sam Smith. AC/DC. Fall Out Boy. Same as usual. He sang Smith’s popular song “Latch” twice out loud.
“Maybe I sang it a little bit louder [tonight],” Graham admits with a grin. “Love that song.”
In the eyes of Maryland coach Mark Turgeon, Graham was calm. But in the eyes of his teammates, the ever-energetic forward was even more amped than usual. As his headphones blared, forward Jake Layman tried to get Graham’s attention.
“He was just ignoring me,” Layman said. “So I knew he was locked in from that point.”
Graham recorded a career-high 16 points against his former team Wednesday to lead the 17th-ranked Terrapins to a 64-58 win. Usually a light scorer, he finished with more points in 20 minutes than he had in his previous eight games combined. He also chipped in six rebounds and a block.
“Look, I’m just happy we won the game,” Graham said. “Scoring 16 is nice, but a win’s a win. At the end of the day, we scored more points than the other team. We won the game. That’s all I’m worried about.”
Fellow senior Dez Wells led the way with 23 points on 8-for-10 shooting in what might have been his most complete offensive performance since breaking a bone in his right wrist Nov. 25. Layman added 10 points and nine rebounds, and freshman point guard Melo Trimble finished with a season-high eight assists despite not making a field goal for a second consecutive game.
The win helped erase the stench of the Terrapins’ 80-56 loss at Ohio State last week and kept them in a tie for second place in the Big Ten with a 7-3 conference record.
“I think this game, for us, was a step in the right direction,” Layman said. “I don’t think it was going to take one game for us to kind of get back in our stride and start playing at a really, really high level again. But a win’s a win.”
This win was all about Graham. The son of Maryland great Ernie Graham and a standout at Baltimore’s Calvert Hall High School, he spent the first three years of his collegiate career at Penn State, including two under current coach Patrick Chambers.
Graham transferred to Maryland in 2013 and averaged 1.6 points per game last season. He had yet to reach double figures this year.
Turgeon figured Graham would be excited for his first meeting with his former team. “I’m sure he didn’t sleep much,” the fourth-year coach said. Instead, Turgeon found Graham to be incredibly relaxed before the game.
Graham said he slept like a baby Tuesday night, too.
“The first good night’s sleep I had for probably a week and a half, to be honest with you,” he said.
Graham didn’t start Wednesday’s game, but he entered almost immediately after a defensive blunder by starting center Damonte Dodd less than a minute in. Graham scored his first points with 8:06 remaining in the first half, then turned it on after the break. He scored Maryland’s first seven points of the second half, eclipsing his previous career-high of 10 points in the process.
Graham outworked Penn State’s big men in the post for layups and jump hooks, then banked a free throw off the glass later in the half. “Called it,” Graham said with a grin. Everything was going his way.
“It was his night,” Turgeon said. “And then he had the one that rolled in for him. Those seem to always roll out for Jon, and it rolled in tonight. So that was great to see.”
It was strange for Graham at first, playing against his former team and many people he still considers great friends. He stood under the basket on one possession as his former roommate, Penn State’s D.J. Newbill, handled the ball on the perimeter. Newbill, the conference’s leading scorer, finished with 18 points on 19 shots.
Over time, however, Graham settled in and began attacking the rim. He credited Trimble, whose penetration and assists created several easy layups for him in the paint. But the energy Graham brought, and always brings, certainly helped. It wasn’t a surprise to his current coach, nor his old one.
“I knew going into this game he was going to have a career high. I knew it,” Chambers said. “I’m happy for Jon. I really am. I know it means to world to him, and Jon is a good kid.”
Maryland led by as many as eight points in the second half and by five with 2:14 remaining. Brandon Taylor made consecutive 3-pointers to cut Penn State’s deficit to 59-58 before Wells hit two free throws and Newbill unsuccessfully tried to draw a foul as his shot missed the mark. The Nittany Lions’ final opportunity fizzled with 8 seconds left as they failed to inbound the ball.
The clock expired and Graham lined up with his new teammates to shake hands with the old. After scoring only 50 points in his first 22 games of the season, he walked off the court Wednesday with 16. The fact that they came against his former team didn’t really matter to him. But the performance wasn’t really a coincidence, either.
“You can call it a storybook if you want to,” he said.
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.