Halfway through the air, Eric Ayala realized the referees weren’t going to call a foul on his drive to the rim with time winding down.
Ayala had the matchup he wanted, and instead of settling for a jumper when Purdue forward Trevion Williams switched onto the Maryland guard, Ayala shimmied his way to the basket. By his release, Ayala knew his shot would either fall through or bounce short off the front iron. So Ayala immediately popped back into the air when his feet hit the ground.
On a night in which the Boilermakers dominated the boards throughout, Ayala rose up higher than all the crashing defenders to pull down the Terrapins’ third offensive rebound. That time, when he leaped back toward the hoop, the whistle sounded.
Purdue fouled Ayala with three seconds left, and Ayala knocked down both free throws to seal Maryland’s 61-60 win on Tuesday — the team’s first home win of the Big Ten slate and fourth win over a ranked opponent.
“There was a couple times they threw the ball off the backboard and it bounced right to them, and I was like, ‘Is the ball going to bounce our way?’” Terrapins coach Mark Turgeon said. “And it did, that last play.”
The Terrapins trailed by as many as seven points with under four minutes to play, but they battled back through Ayala, Aaron Wiggins and Darryl Morsell. That trio combined to score 45 points, and Wiggins managed a double-double with his 11 boards.
Wiggins gave Maryland (10-8, 4-7 Big Ten) life earlier in the second half, when the game seemed to be slipping away. Like most of his teammates, Wiggins had struggled from beyond the arc in the first half. The Terrapins shot 1-for-12 from deep in the opening frame, and Wiggins had four of those clanks.
But he used an off-ball screen near the top of the key midway through the second half and knocked down his second triple in a one-minute span.
The guard turned, fists clenched, and yelled toward the rafters, the kind of yell that wakes up a team that had been asleep from deep for much of the game to that point. Wiggins’ two treys joined one from Ayala moments earlier, combining to give the Terrapins a lead again.
“Aaron is literally, like, the true definition of a microwave to me,” Morsell said. “I see it in practice, I see it in the summer all the time. If he makes one shot, I promise you, every single time he makes one shot, I go to the entire team: ‘Find him.’ That next one is going up and going in.”
Purdue went on to retake that edge, but Maryland hung around, needing two key defensive stands with about a minute remaining. On both, Boilermakers guard Jaden Ivey settled for jumpers. He missed, and the Terrapins capitalized with six straight points — capped by Ayala’s pair at the line.
“We locked in when it mattered,” Morsell said. “I think we always answer when our back [is] against the wall.”
The Boilermakers outrebounded Maryland, 33-24, with Williams and forward Aaron Wheeler pulling down 17 of those boards. The Terrapins’ interior play has been an issue all season, leaving Turgeon to employ smaller lineups. And Williams seemed to take advantage of that size differential, finishing with 23 points.
But late in the game, Maryland came through when it mattered most, with a defensive board with 20 seconds left allowing Ayala the chance to drive the lane.
“It was a couple really crucial ones that we got,” Wiggins said. “We had the mindset to make tough plays and make the right plays. That meant not only offensively, but rebounding and boxing out.”
In the buildup to Tuesday’s contest, Turgeon emphasized the need to focus on one game at a time, not looking ahead at any tournament considerations. But he admitted after the game that he told his staff the Terrapins needed to win this matchup if they wanted a chance to make the NCAA tournament.
Maryland got it done, earning its fourth ranked win in a conference full of talent. The remainder of February will still be a slog, but Tuesday was a big step.
“Today was real important,” Turgeon said. “It would’ve really made it difficult to be part of a postseason if we didn’t win today.”
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