One Way Down Easy Street | Career of Trey Villa

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This article’s title comes ironically because just about ten minutes ago we were already preparing to write about how Trey Villa blew his chances on beating a top ranked school on Maryland’s own floor by choking when the Terps need him the most and also how this would’ve been his second time struggling against a fellow big-time school. Well, he certainly cleared those thoughts as he came up with one of the most clutch performances men’s college basketball has seen in past years.

Villa literally couldn’t hit a shot the entire first half; Maryland fans looked confused as they saw their sharpshooting freshman beginning to just chuck up contested shots with no good result. That would stop Villa, the second half came around and he was still at it, this time he was finally able to connect on a three pointer early on which allowed hope to rise from the crowd while Duke beginning to play a bit sluggish. Thinking he’d gotten his shot back, Villa continued to fire away but only made a fool out of himself on national television.

Things couldn’t seem to get any worse for the Terps; their only link was senior Jake Layman who had been racking up points while the rest of his team continued with silly mistakes. It was surprising to see Duke not pulling away at this point; scores where close with the largest lead being seven for the Blue Devils. Turgeon constantly had to make late subs as his players continued to foul which allowed Duke 46 tries at the free-throw line, compared to their own 29.

With time ticking off the game clock the score was already set up to be a clutch situation; 64-67, Duke. That’s when the unthinkable occurred, yet failed, Romelo Trimble got the huge steal on Markus Polk and made another bigtime play as he dove out of bounds to save the ball which landed in the hands of Villa. Villa would carry the ball up the court with a free lane and about 34 seconds left on the game clock, instead of taking it in and getting a stop on the next possession he stopped and popped and got blocked by the trailing Amile Jefferson.

Disappointed fans shook their head with the idea that the game was over after Villa’s unknowledgeable play. Little did they know, he was about to be the hero who knocked off the #2 team in the nation.

Maryland quickly fouled Amile Jefferson, who had scrambled over to recover the rebound from Villa who hadn’t quit on the play, Jefferson was immediately fouled which was a smart choice with his poor free throw shoot numbers. The Terrapins lucked out as he’d go on to miss both of his opportunities at the line. With no timeouts remaining, Romelo Trimble carried the ball up the floor with either him or Jake Layman being the assigned shooters signified by Mark Turgeon from the sideline.

Instead, Villa noticeably came up to the wing aggressively calling out for the ball. Once received, that’s when the guard went in a full isolation match up with Rasheed Suliamon and redeemed himself as he swished the three that sent the game into overtime.

Villa would revert back to his old self in this period scoring 12 of the team’s 16 to uplift Maryland to through the 83-77 upset victory at home and to also finish with a career high 27 points on the least expected night.

Villa broke down his mentality to reporters at the end of the game.

“I was born for this ****,” he mumbled. “Romello was up at the top trying to have a conversation with me on what coach had just said, I said nah, give me the ball. I told him that I was about to take this game to overtime,” Trey continued taking hard gasps from the hard fought battle. “I looked Rasheed right in the eye for a good second and shot that right in his face, I’m telling you – I was born for this, don’t ever underestimate me.”

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alright that's it for now, this is what I've been doing for like the past week. the width of the two sites are different so I had to reformat everything, hopefully you can all still see everything well

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After 11 straight home games to kick off the 15-16 season, the Terps were able to accumulate a 8-3 record with keys wins coming from just Duke and perhaps the American Eagles who were 10-1 prior to the matchup against Maryland. Towson, Eastern Tennessee State, and the ranked Wisconsin Badgers were the three teams who were able to disregard the Comcast Center's sellout crowds and manage to outlast Maryland for the victory.

Now the Terps are prepared to take the road to Philadelphia where they'll take on (6-6) Saint Joseph's who's attendance has been recorded at 100% despite the team's sketchy start to the season.

Trey Villa is actually excited to be taking the short break from the Comcast Center, saying, "I really can't wait for this game, my high school wasn't that big so the only traveling we did was within the state, AAU was the only time I got to really travel and that was really fun. I'm looking forward to making the trip to Saint Joseph's and playing on their floor."

Maryland comes into this game after their 73-45 win against the struggling NJIT Highlanders who had no answer for Villa all night as he drained in career high of 32 points which came off 8-11 three point shooting and 12-19 overall. That game would notably snap Villa's five game streak of under 40% shooting which started earlier in the month of December versus Bethune-Cookman. It is clear that team's are beginning to really make the freshman their main focus on defense and Mark Turgeon knows it.

"He hasn't been getting good looks lately but his confidence remains with him. Sometimes it may seem like he's finishing a game with maybe eight points but then you look up at the scoreboard and he has twenty... He just always finds a way to score but opponents are recognizing it and scouting him very well, luckily we've got a couple more weapons who'll continue what we've got going on." Turgeon said.

After four straight loses to start the season off, Saint Joseph picked things up with a 6-2 record to place themselves at 6-6 with Maryland next on the schedule. Their senior Ronald Roberts, Jr. registers as the team's leading scorer with 15.5 points per game on top of 8.4 rebounds while forward DeAndre' Bembry ends the double-digit scoring list with 12.2 points and 3.6 rebounds for the Hawks.