WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA — With 3:50 left in the Terrapins men’s basketball team’s game Saturday, the Terps trailed by double digits.
So coach Mark Turgeon threw a wrinkle at Purdue. After a media timeout, the Terps went to a press. With senior forward Jake Layman and his 6-foot-9 frame at the top of the defense, the Terps generated five steals over the next 90 seconds. The Boilermakers struggled to even cross half court against the suffocating pressure.
The turnovers created by that aggressive defense helped the Terps erase a 10-point deficit in a minute and a half.
While the No. 14 Terps couldn’t complete the comeback and ultimately fell, 83-79, to No. 15 Purdue at Mackey Arena, that 90-second stretch demonstrated the effectiveness of the Terps’ press. At times this season, Turgeon has turned to the defensive scheme to spark his team. So if the Terps trail late in the upcoming postseason tournaments, they can draw confidence from that sequence Saturday and know Layman can wreak havoc against opposing ball handlers.
“They only crossed half like one time during that stretch,” Turgeon said. “We had to be aggressive. Jake’s really good at the top of the press.”
While Layman sometimes applied pressure on the Purdue player inbounding the ball, he did the most damage once the ball was in play. Layman and a teammate would trap the ball handler. Though Layman had one steal, his long arms and active hands created other turnovers.
In one instance with about 3:15 remaining, Layman deflected a pass. He wasn’t credited with the steal, but that tip led to a 3-pointer from sophomore Jared Nickens seconds later that brought the Terps within three.
“Just getting deflections,” Layman said when asked why the press was so effective. “I feel like every single one of them went our way, and it always led to a basket or a foul.”
Earlier in the game, though, the Boilermakers broke the Terps’ press with ease. After a dunk from Terps center Diamond Stone with 7:40 left, Layman and the Terps stayed on Purdue’s end of the court. But the Boilermakers easily got into their half-court offense, and the possession ended with a made basket.
Less than a minute later, the Boilermakers broke down the Terps for an easy layup. So Turgeon temporarily ditched the press.
“I was like, ‘I’ve got to get this game changed,’ and it didn’t work,” Turgeon said. “Sometimes when you get under four [minutes] and you’re up 10, you try to hold on instead of being aggressive.”
After the game, the Terps said the press should only be used in certain situations.
“That’s not really how we defend,” Nickens said. “We just like to stick to our principles, but depending on the game, we might need to use it sometimes.”
Turgeon and the Terps have that defense in their back pocket moving forward. But Turgeon didn’t want to talk about the future Saturday.
After the press jump-started a late-game comeback, he simply wanted to commend his players. They had turned his gamble into a success, even if it didn’t lead to a win.
“I was really proud of our group,” Turgeon said. “We never gave up.”
