SPOKANE, Wash. – South Dakota State Coach Scott Nagy had a string of difficult decisions to make in preparation for Maryland. In devoting as much defensive attention as possible to containing sophomore point guard Melo Trimble and the Terrapins’ front court, he opted to make senior forward Jake Layman beat his team from the outside. It was the wrong call.
“Let’s face it, here we are leaving a 6-9 tremendous shooter, great body, great athlete, we’re having to leave him open because the posts are unbelievable. So yeah, it’s pick your poison. He’s the won that probably won the game for them,” Nagy said shortly after his team’s 79-74 loss to Maryland on Friday afternoon, in which Layman tied a career high with 27 points and continued his late-season surge.