A day later, Maryland’s Varun Ram still enjoying game-saving defensive play

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It didn’t take long for highlights of Varun Ram’s last-second defensive stop to reach all corners of the country. By the time Ram left the arena following Maryland’s 65-62 victory over Valparaiso on Friday, he received phone calls, text messages and e-mails from plenty of family members, friends and fans.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Ram said Saturday, shortly before practice. “You know, in this day and age with social media and news outlets, you can really get the word to spread. We had a lot of people following the game, and so I guess a lot of people heard about what happened. It’s pretty remarkable.”

Ram stepped onto the court for the first time with 13.7 seconds remaining and the Terrapins holding on to a three-point lead, and his defense prevented Valparaiso guard Keith Carter from getting a good look at a 3-pointer that could have tied the score.

All Carter could muster was an off-balance heave from the left corner — one that didn’t come anywhere near the rim, either the result of Ram tipping the basketball or hitting Carter on the arm, as many Valparaiso players said after the game was the case.

“I mean, it’s hard to say,” Ram said. “I know there’s a still shot of that that looks like I fouled him, but I think it was clean. I’ve done that a lot of times. The play — it happened really fast. I would still say it was clean, but you know, I know a lot of it is very controversial, and there are people that would say otherwise, but it is what it is and it happened — and we won, so that’s the best thing.”

Ram, a former walk-on who was later awarded a scholarship, said he “just kept having to pinch myself — like, ’Is this really happening? Because this is crazy.’”

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He also had several friends in attendance for the game, making the evening that much more enjoyable.

“It’s definitely something I wasn’t prepared for, and it’s kind of like something you see in a movie,” Ram said. “But it’s just been surreal, and I’ve kind of been trying to enjoy it.”