Coleman Hawkins threw a high-arcing wayward pass over his head in an attempt to keep the ball inbounds, but Jahmir Young read the path of the ball and tipped it forward with an open court ahead of him.

He drove to the basket and elevated toward the rim with one defender at his side, but his layup rolled off the iron and into the hands of an Illinois defender. One long pass back to Hawkins resulted in an and-one layup for the Fighting Illini — a five-point swing that put the Terps’ deficit at four.

A golden opportunity for Maryland to take its first lead of the half with three minutes to go evaporated as quickly as it arose. The Terps would never get another chance to get back on top.

“That was a huge momentum shift,” Young said. “That was definitely the biggest play of the game … We gotta do a better job in the future of being able to bounce back from that.”

Maryland men’s basketball hung with No. 14 Illinois throughout the duration of Saturday’s game, but fell to the Fighting Illini, 85-80, at Xfinity Center.

Maryland (14-12, 6-9 Big Ten) had beaten Illinois in 10 of its last 12 matchups, including a road win in January over then-No. 10 Illinois, which was without leading scorer Terrance Shannon Jr. at the time, but suffered its first loss at home to the Fighting Illini since 2011. The Terps have lost four of their last five games.

[Legendary Maryland men’s basketball coach Lefty Driesell dies at 92]

Illinois’ first seven shots of the game were three-pointers, and the Fighting Illini used them to take and hold onto an early lead. Four different players made threes as Illinois (19-6, 10-4 Big Ten) went 4-for-7 from deep in the opening five minutes, but coach Brad Underwood’s squad went just 1-for-5 over the entire rest of the half.

Young, the Terps’ leading scorer, powered Maryland’s charge back. He drained the Terps’ first three of the night early on and went to work in the paint, getting multiple contested mid- and close-range shots to fall.

Young’s pair of free throws with about six minutes to go in the half handed Maryland its first lead of the game. He led all players with 15 points at the break and scored a game-high 28 on 8-for-23 shooting.

Julian Reese added 10 points in the first half and did most of his damage near the break. The forward finished Saturday’s game with 18. DeShawn Harris-Smith scored six in the opening 20 minutes on a trio of aggressive drives to the basket after his breakout 17-point performance Wednesday in a win over Iowa.

The Terps trailed at the end of a closely contested half, 43-38. Illinois’ total of 43 points was the second largest total Maryland has given up in the opening half this year, and the Fighting Illini’s 85 points was the most Maryland’s given up in an entire game this season. The Terps’ 38 points was their second-best mark this year in an opening half in Big Ten play.

[Maryland men’s basketball storms back in second half to beat Iowa, 78-66]

“The big thing was trying to get back and form a wall on the transition,” coach Kevin WIllard said. “[Shannon Jr.] made a couple nice moves, and you know, he’s a pro, he’s gonna make some good moves and score in the first half, but for the most part he did most of his damage in transition.”

The second half slowed down with slightly less scoring and an abundance of foul calls — a combined 31 between the two teams — but the back-and-forth nature of the game continued.

Both teams embarked on miniature four-and five-point runs at different points in the half before their opponent responded with a bucket. Illinois grew its lead to seven multiple times, but Maryland clawed back on each occasion to keep the game within a couple possessions.

A pair of free throws from Donta Scott, who scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, tied the game at 68 with less than six minutes to go. Maryland got within one point of Illinois multiple times and didn’t trail by more than four for a stretch of about four minutes until a Shannon Jr. layup with less than two minutes to go.

“I was proud of their effort, we had our chances,” coach Kevin Willard said. “[When] you give up 36 free throws, you’re not gonna win the game.”

The Terps never led in the second half after squandering their late opportunity, and dropped another close contest in a season full of narrow losses.