The road jinx is over for Maryland men’s basketball.
After dropping their first four games away from College Park, the Terps earned a coveted road victory by defeating host UCLA, 69-60, on Friday night at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
Maryland had already matched the 0-4 start away from home set by the 1986-87 squad. Friday’s win helped the program avoid joining the dubious company of the 1949-50 team that lost its first seven road games.
Fifth-year senior point guard Jahmir Young put on a sublime performance, scoring 23 of his career-high 37 points in the first half and adding seven rebounds and three assists. Fifth-year senior small forward Donta Scott enjoyed his second consecutive solid start by chipping in 17 points and six rebounds, and freshman shooting guard DeShawn Harris-Smith contributed nine points, six rebounds and two assists.
That trio helped the Terps improve to 8-4 and pick up their seventh victory in the past eight games. They also won in Los Angeles for the first time in three meetings (they had been outscored by a combined 34 points in the first two) and defeated the Bruins for the first time since a 70-54 victory at the Puerto Rico Shootout on Nov. 27, 1998.
With the win, Maryland avenged an 87-60 thumping against the Bruins on Dec. 14, 2022. That setback looms as the only negative result the program has absorbed in 24 games in College Park since the beginning of last season.
Freshman point guard Sebastian Mack paced UCLA (5-6) with 17 points and four rebounds. Sophomore shooting guard Dylan Andrews scored 11 points for the Bruins, who rallied from a 20-point deficit at 48-28 with 17:17 left in the second half to get within two at 57-55 with 5:27 remaining before losing steam.
Here are three observations from Friday night’s game.
Jahmir Young stepped out of the phone booth for Maryland
When he scored the Terps’ first eight points on 3 of 3 shooting, Young had to feel it was going to be that kind of night for him.
Young’s 37 points smashed his season high of 28 against Penn State on Dec. 6 and his personal best of 30 set twice. His 13 field goals were another career high, eclipsing the 12 he made against Wake Forest on Dec. 17, 2021. And he tied his personal best of four 3-pointers set more than a dozen times.
Young’s output occurred in 36 minutes, but he told the team’s radio broadcast crew that he was more concerned with getting the victory.
“We hadn’t gotten a road game yet this year,” he said. “So just trying to lead the young guys and lead this team and just make it a personal thing and just going out and playing as hard as I can. We’ve got a break for a few days. So just going out and leaving it all on the floor.”
Young was especially heroic when Maryland needed a catalyst the most. After UCLA trimmed the Terps’ lead to 57-55, Young scored his team’s next nine points in a 2:59 stretch to keep he and his teammates ahead.
“He was phenomenal,” said Kevin Willard, who collected his 300th win as a college coach. “He had it going early, he felt it. He made some great reads early on, coming off down screens. I think he saw that first one go in, and I saw his eyes. He really wanted the basketball. At the end of the game, we needed a bucket, and with [forward] Julian [Reese] out, we put the ball in his hands, and he made some big plays.”
How dominant was Young? He had scored more points than UCLA did through much of the first half. Young had 21 points on 7 of 8 shooting when the Bruins had only 19 on 6 of 15 shooting with 6:08 left in the period. The last time he and UCLA were tied in points occurred at the 3:26 mark when they both had 23 points.
Young scored the most points by a Terps player since Diamond Stone had 39 against Penn State on Dec. 30, 2015. And Maryland needed all of Young to pull away from the Bruins.
Julian Reese’s worst game in almost two years almost sunk Maryland
As prolific as Young was, Reese, the team’s second-leading scorer, best rebounder and most consistent inside presence, was practically a no-show.
The 6-foot-9, 230-pound junior power forward finished with one point — on 0 of 2 shooting and 1 of 6 from the free throw line — four rebounds, two turnovers, one block and one steal in 22 minutes before fouling out with 5:45 left in the game. The last time he had such an underwhelming showing was March 10, 2022, when he didn’t record a point and had three rebounds in a loss to Michigan State.
Without Reese, the Terps were muzzled on the inside. They were outscored, 30-16, in the paint by UCLA, which also grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and converted them into 13 second-chance points.
Reese has posted eyebrow-raising outings in back-to-back starts. In Tuesday’s 73-67 win against Nicholls State, the Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate finished with nine points despite missing 10 of 13 field goals and eight of 11 free throws.
Reese has to know that the Terps’ chances of success improve immensely when he is on the floor and effectively giving them options in the paint and on the perimeter between him and Young. When the former is absent, Maryland has to sweat out results like it did in the second half Friday night.
Maryland appeared poised to enjoy its best 3-point performance of the season – until status quo returned
Entering the game, the Terps’ offense had connected on only 26.7% (69 of 258) of its 3-point shots.
But Maryland found its footing behind the arc early and often in the first half. By halftime, it had hit 58.3% (7 of 12) of its 3-point attempts, which would have surpassed its previous season best of 46.7% (14 of 30) set against Alcorn State on Dec. 12.
Then the second half unfolded, and Maryland slipped back into its familiar state of inaccuracy. The team missed nine of 10 shots beyond the arc and finished the game at 36.4% (8 of 22).
Some of those attempts in the second half were late-in-the-shot-clock heaves to avoid turning the ball over. But that’s also an indictment of the Terps being unable to create many opportunities to attack the basket.
Fortunately for Maryland, UCLA was even worse from long range, shooting just 7.1% (1 of 14). Still, opponents aren’t always going to be as generous as the Bruins were.
Coppin State at Maryland
Thursday, 7 p.m.
TV: Big Ten Network
Radio: 105.7 FM