In the closing seconds of the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team’s ACC semifinal loss to Notre Dame on April 25, Mike Chanenchuk committed a costly turnover that led to the Fighting Irish’s game-winning goal with 6.5 seconds remaining.

But during the Terps’ first-round NCAA tournament game against Cornell on Saturday evening at Byrd Stadium, the senior attackman redeemed himself in a similar late-game situation.

The No. 7-seed Terps and the Big Red were tied 7-7 with less than 20 seconds remaining when Terps midfielder Bryan Cole slipped while making a move, and the ball fell to the turf. Three Big Red players charged to the loose ball, but Chanenchuk emerged from the scrum with possession before coach John Tillman called a timeout with nine seconds left.

Out of the break, midfielder Henry West drove to the net and delivered a skip pass to Chanenchuk on the other side of the offensive formation. The attackman then rifled a rocket into the top right corner with two seconds left to give the Terps a one-goal victory and a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals at Hofstra on Saturday against Bryant.

“I knew if they got it, they were going,” Chanenchuk said. “I just put my head down and picked it up. And coach made a great call with the timeout. … We knew ground balls were going to be a big part of this game, and that the tough ones are the ones that are going to make the difference.”

Chanenchuk’s goal gave the Terps their first lead. Cornell played a dominant first half on both sides of the ball to take a 5-1 lead entering halftime — a start worse than the Terps’ eight-goal home loss to the Big Red in the first round of last year’s NCAA tournament, in which the Big Red led by two at the break.

Cornell attackman Matt Donovan — the team’s points leader — scored three times in the second quarter on dodges from behind the cage against defender Goran Murray. The Big Red defense, meanwhile, thwarted the Terps offense and held the unit to one goal in the first 30 minutes of play: a score from Chanenchuk with about six minutes left in the half.

“They knocked down some balls,” Tillman said. “They got to our hands. They took away the inside. So give them a lot of credit. They disrupted our rhythm and they had a great defensive game plan.”

The second half was a complete turnaround, though.

The Terps scored twice in the first five minutes of the third quarter — the first on a shovel rebound from attackman Jay Carlson and the second on an underhand lefty rip from attackman Matt Rambo during an extra-man opportunity — to cut the Big Red lead to two.

“Those first two goals got us momentum,” Tillman said. “It was a different energy on the bench, just a different energy everywhere.”

Attackman Connor Cannizzaro added a goal one minute later to bring the Terps within one, but a penalty from defensive midfielder Brian Cooper led to a man-up goal from Cornell midfielder John Hogan with 7:13 left in the quarter to extend the Big Red advantage back to two goals.

Rambo and attackman Dan Lintner traded goals to begin the fourth quarter before Cannizzaro and Rambo scored back-to-back goals to tie the game at seven with 8:12 left.

Tillman said his team’s furious comeback was fueled by faceoff specialist Charlie Raffa — who won 8-of-10 draws in the second half against Big Red specialist Doug Tesoriero — along with wingers Michael Ehrhardt and Cooper.

“Because of their energy and their ground play, we got the ball to the offensive end, and some of our younger players stepped up,” Tillman said. “But that was all due to the hard work in the middle of the field by the older guys.”

Neither team found the back of the net for the next seven minutes in the fourth quarter, but the Terps established possession with less than two minutes left before Tillman called a timeout with 53 seconds remaining.

Against the Fighting Irish in the conference tournament at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, the Terps were in a similar predicament when Tillman took a timeout with possession with 1:16 remaining. But the referees put a 30-second shot clock on with about 45 seconds left, forcing Chanenchuk to make a move to the net that resulted in his debilitating turnover.

During his timeout on Saturday, Tillman said he had a quick conversation with a referee to clarify exactly when he was planning on starting the timer. Eventually, the officials started the shot clock with 31 seconds remaining on the game clock.

That means Chanenchuk’s game-clinching goal hit the net with one second to spare. And just more than two weeks after he wilted down the stretch against Notre Dame, the senior made two crucial plays in the final 10 seconds of regulation to avoid elimination against Cornell.

“That’s how close sometimes winning and losing is,” Tillman said.