COLLEGE PARK — On a day celebrating the career of longtime Maryland coach Lefty Driesell, the Terrapins tried their best to overcome another halftime deficit and deliver a ‘V’ for victory, but stumbled again in the final moments with the game on the line.
Guard Jahmir Young scored a game-high 19 points, but turned the ball over on the final possession with a chance to tie as Maryland fell, 61-59, to Michigan State on Sunday afternoon.
The Terrapins (11-8, 3-5 Big Ten) trailed again by 12 points at halftime for the second-straight home game, but couldn’t complete the comeback like they did against Michigan a week ago, leaving them with one fewer opportunity to put together an NCAA Tournament-worthy resume.
“We’ve had really bad turnovers and untimely turnovers, and it’s it’s just not one person, it’s been everybody,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. “We have some guys that are at times trying to make a play, when they’re trying to make something happen, which I like. And it’s a learning process. Even for the older guys.”
Young led all scorers but also committed seven of Maryland’s 18 turnovers, including the final one with less than 10 seconds to go just inside the elbow in front of his bench.
“You don’t want to call timeout,” Willard said of not using his final stoppage. “You know you have a senior guard who you really depend on who I have a lot of confidence in.”
Donta Scott scored 16, and Julian Reese recorded his ninth double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds as the Terrapins lost for the fifth-straight time to the Spartans and fell to 0-5 in one-possession games this season.
“It’s such a fast-paced team, it’s not really a lot of guys crashing,” Reese said. “It’s just guys getting back because you know they are just fast paced. Their get-back defense is kind of solid, and they are pretty good at building a wall.”
The Terrapins broke out their throwback script Maryland white uniforms for the first time this season on a day dedicated to honoring Driesell. Their former coach led Maryland from 1969-86, winning the 1972 NIT title, the 1984 ACC Tournament and reaching the NCAA Tournament eight times.
The 92-year-old Driesell, who makes his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was unable to attend the halftime ceremony. He was represented by his son, Chuck, and many former players he coached from the first great era of Maryland basketball.
Michigan State (12-7, 4-4) was led by Tyson Walker’s 15 points, along with 12 a piece from Malik Hall, A.J. Hoggard, and Tre Holloman.
“That was an old-fashioned, 90s-2000s Big Ten game,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. “An ugly win is much better than a pretty loss…we deserve some of the blame for letting that lead get away.”
Izzo’s squad had the book on Maryland memorized: Deny the inside where Young and Reese operate at their best, leave the Terrapins decent looks from beyond the arc, and dare the Big Ten’s worst three-point shooting team to make their shots.
“Yeah, I think everyone’s kind of doing that to be honest with you,” Willard said.
Maryland did make two of its first three attempts from three-point range, courtesy of Scott and Young, but only finished 5-of-15 in the first half — with the other makes all coming from Jahari Long.
The Terrapins’ first 12 points came from Scott and Young, but Maryland was stung elsewhere in transition. It turned the ball over five times in the first eight minutes.
Those turnovers led to an 8-0 Michigan State run, forcing a Willard timeout with his team down 22-15. It didn’t help, with the Maryland coach using another stoppage just minutes later after the run extended to 13. When it ended, Michigan State had rattled off a 17-1 stretch over 8-plus minutes and its largest lead of the half at 31-16.
“It just took us a while, unfortunately, to kind of just get used to their speed, and then once we did, I thought we defended pretty well,” Willard said.
Five points from DeShawn Harris-Smith and one of Long’s threes trimmed the Spartans’ lead to 35-24 after the drought. Holloman and Long each made three from three in the first, and Maryland committed two fouls in the final 40 seconds to enter halftime down 44-32.
The Terrapins opened the second half much like the first. Young and Scott each hit threes, sandwiched around a Reese and-one, to cut a 12-point deficit to five, 46-41.
It was then that Maryland found an opening where it hadn’t in the first half — inside. Reese became more assertive, pulling down a rebound amid three Spartans and finishing a put-back to draw the Terrapins to within three.
“[At halftime], we just watch and make adjustments, and we just counted how many times we just gave them points in transition,” Willard said. “We just talked about, let’s get back in transition. We got some open looks.”
A Scott and-one and another lay-up nearly four minutes later tied the game at 48. Maryland captured its first lead since the 13-minute mark of the first half, 53-50, with Young’s third three with 8:26 left. Maryland’s surge benefitted from a Michigan State cold spell, with the Spartans going scoreless for nearly five minutes.
“We discussed stopping them in transition,” Scott said of the second-half surge. “For like the first half, we didn’t really do that. And then the second half we got a lot more keyed and locking in on stopping them from in transition.”
In the final minute, a three from Walker — the only Spartans one of the half — pushed Michigan State ahead 61-57. Young answered with an on-the-line two and had a chance to tie after a Walker miss with less than 10 seconds to go, but lost his handle on the ball on the game’s last possession. With only six team fouls at that point, Willard chose not to try and extend the game by sending the Spartans to the line for one-and-one opportunities.
“They didn’t have anybody on the team that’s a bad free throw shooter, so you’re pretty much giving up a possession,” Willard said. “We had been getting stops. So you’re pretty much putting yourself down two possessions without letting your defense do what it’s been doing for the whole half.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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