It was dark outside, but it didn’t matter. When Nick Faust and his friends played basketball at 1 a.m., street lights were enough to illuminate the old hoop in an alley near his Garrison Avenue home in Baltimore.

When Faust and his family moved to Bel Air, a suburb northeast of the city, his friends would come over for sleepovers, and the late-night contests continued.

And Anthony Faust, Nick’s father, would routinely answer phone calls the next day from neighbors asking why they heard the pounding of a basketball on asphalt in the middle of the night.

“Oh my God,” Anthony Faust would respond. “I know these kids are not doing that.”

Faust told his son not to play hoops so late, but that didn’t always stop the outgoing middle-schooler. Nick and his friends, Anthony said, “would rather play basketball than eat.”

It’s been nearly a decade since the first of those games in the alley, but Faust, now a guard for the Terrapins men’s basketball team, will have a chance to relive those days when C.J. Fair and No. 1 Syracuse visit Comcast Center tonight.

Fair, the preseason ACC Player of the Year, and Faust have been close friends since they joined the same youth basketball team when Faust was 12. The two Baltimore natives have starkly different personalities — Faust doesn’t mind drawing attention while Fair strives to avoid it — but they bonded on the basketball court.

“That’s my boy. It’s like my family,” Faust said last week. “We’ve already texted each other about it, and family back home’s been texting us about it. It’ll be a packed game, and it’ll be really exciting to see.”

Though Faust and Fair will share a national television spotlight tonight on ESPN’s “Big Monday” as the Terps (15-12, 7-7 ACC) search for a season-defining win against the Orange (25-2, 12-2), neither was the clear-cut go-to guy on their middle school recreational team.

Former Kansas guard Josh Selby, Portland Trail Blazers guard Will Barton and Tennessee guard Antonio Barton rounded out the starting lineup for Faust and Fair’s rec team. So Anthony Faust wasn’t at all surprised how quickly his son and Fair became friends, considering they spent so much time on the winning end of games growing up.

“They beat a lot of teams,” said Anthony Faust, whose son was at least a year younger than the rest of his teammates. “That was a good team right there.”

Nick Faust and Fair played basketball together any chance they got and hung out off the court, too. One weekend they’d sleep over at the Faust home, and then they’d spend a night at the Fair house the next weekend.

Yet the two friends couldn’t have been more different away from the hardwood.

Mike Daniel coached Fair for three years at Baltimore City College High School. When Fair left to spend his senior season at a prep school in New Hampshire, Faust transferred to City for his junior year. Though they never overlapped at City, Daniel mentored both players and quickly noticed their unique traits.

“Nick is full of personality,” Daniel said. “C.J. is a little more reserved. He’s a little laid-back, but both are great kids.”

Added Faust: “C.J. was really quiet. He just goes with the flow.”

After Fair converted the game-winning layup in the final seconds of the Orange’s victory over N.C. State earlier this season, the senior simply jogged back down the court to play defense. His eyes remained fixed on the ball until the Wolfpack took a timeout.

Faust, meanwhile, puts his personality on display during games, often pounding his chest and flashing looks to fans after slamming home dunks.

Daniel suggested those personalities translated onto the court. Faust was always willing to take shots and enjoyed being called upon to shoulder City’s offensive load, while coaches begged Fair to shoot more often.

“C.J. wasn’t a scorer the way he is now. He was one hell of a rebounder, great team guy, and we used to always push him about scoring,” Daniel said. “Nick came in, and Nick was Nick.”

But since his high school days, Fair has developed into one of the ACC’s top scorers. He averages 16.4 points and six rebounds per game for the Orange and was pivotal in the team’s 25-0 start to the season.

Faust has settled into a reserve role for the Terps but still plays 27.3 minutes per game. Coach Mark Turgeon lauded the junior as his team’s best perimeter defender, and he’s coming off a career-high 20-point performance in a win over Wake Forest on Tuesday.

Perhaps Faust’s next challenge will be locking down his good friend.

“I really don’t know how Mark Turgeon is going to play it, but I would put Nick on C.J.,” Anthony Faust said. “They know each other.”

Nick Faust said he’d welcome that challenge. He plays pickup games against Fair whenever the two are home in the Baltimore area, and he remembers battling his more subdued friend well after his Garrison Avenue neighbors went to bed.

So while tonight’s game holds great significance for the Terps’ season, it also reignites a matchup that has its roots in a Baltimore alley.

“Since we were little, we’ve had a rivalry,” Faust said, cracking a smile.

After the latest chapter to the rivalry concludes, Faust is looking forward to catching up with his longtime friend. And from angry neighbors to competition in one of college basketball’s toughest conferences, they’ll have plenty to chat about.

“When the game is over, win, lose or draw, Nick and him and are probably going to sit together,” Anthony Faust said. “And probably talk for a while.”