SPOKANE, WASHINGTON — Jake Layman couldn’t help but smile Friday when a reporter reminded him of his NCAA Tournament debut a season ago: An 0-for-1 effort from the floor. He was a nonfactor offensively in the Terrapins men’s basketball team’s win over Valparaiso as a junior.

But that seemed like a distant memory for the senior sitting at the dais fielding questions after he led the No. 5-seed Terps to a 79-74 win over No. 12-seed South Dakota State.

Layman, playing with his college career on the line Friday, turned in a career performance in his return to the NCAA Tournament. The senior buried five 3-pointers and matched his career high with 27 points on just 11 field-goal attempts.

“He’s the one that probably won the game for them,” Jackrabbits coach Scott Nagy said. “He hit some big shots and made big plays for them.”

For most of the season, Layman took a back seat on the Terps’ talented offense. He ranks fifth on the team in field-goal attempts, often deferring to younger teammates Melo Trimble and Diamond Stone when it comes to shouldering the offensive burden.

The Wrentham, Massachusetts, native would knock down the occasional 3-pointer or flash his athleticism in the post, but he was rarely the go-to weapon. While he still isn’t the focal point of the offense, Layman’s been on an offensive tear the past nine games.

The forward has gone 47-for-78 (60.3 percent) during that stretch, and he’s scored at least 26 points in two of the past three games.

“The last four weeks, he’s gotten a lot more aggressive,” coach Mark Turgeon said. “He’s just so confident shooting the basketball.”

With Trimble and Stone — the team’s two leading scorers — on the bench early in the second half, Layman showed he wasn’t afraid to take over the game. He drilled 3-pointers on consecutive possessions sandwiched by three long balls from guard Jared Nickens.

Layman added a layup just more than a minute later as part of 17 straight Terps points from the duo.

“For me and Jared, I think we have been kind of waiting for that all year where it’s just me and him back and forth just knocking shots down,” Layman said. “It’s kind of funny because we are always watching teams and just seeing teams just have those nights when they can’t miss. So I think me and him, we were just happy that we finally had one of those nights.”

And when the Terps needed someone to step up at the free-throw line down the stretch with their best foul shooter sidelined with five fouls, Layman calmly buried four straight in the final minute.

So what’s the difference between the 6-foot-9 junior who didn’t make a field goal in last season’s Round of 64 game and the senior who poured in a game-high 27 points?

“[I’m a] more mature, confident player,” Layman said. “I’m trying to play with better pace now.”

Until mid-February, it seemed that Layman wouldn’t show up. But he dominated in a 26-point effort against Nebraska in the Big Ten quarterfinals.

And with a second chance at making an impact in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, Layman didn’t disappoint.

“I’ve seen him for the past two years, work, work, work,” Trimble said. “It’s time to pay off.”