The Jordan Clayton Game

Chants of “JORDAN CLAYTON,” clap, clap, clap-clap-clap, echoed throughout Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Clayton had the best game of his college career, posting a career-high 20 points on 6-of-7 shooting from deep, as he, alongside standout performances from Nick Martinelli and Angelo Ciaravino, helped propel Northwestern to its first win in February 2026 over Maryland, 78-74, on Wednesday night.

“The star of the night was Clayton,” head coach Chris Collins said after the game.

Last year, Clayton intended to redshirt with Brooks Barnhizer and Jalen Leach as the two guards set to be the primary ball handlers. On Feb. 1, 2025, Barnhizer was ruled out for the rest of that season with a foot injury. Just three days later, Leach tore his ACL against USC. With both guards no longer able to play, Clayton decided to waive his redshirt and play in the remaining 10 games of the season.

“Last year, it was much talked about how selfless he was when Leach and Barnhizer went down,” Collins said. “He said, ‘Coach, my team needs me.’”

Across his first 21 appearances, Clayton was 15-of-51 from three-point range, 29.4 percent. In Northwestern’s loss to No. 2 Michigan, Clayton was 1-of-1 from three. Against No. 7 Nebraska, he went 1-of-2 from beyond the arc. The sample size there is small, no doubt about it, and it seemed like his shooting struggles from deep would continue against Maryland. Clayton checked into the game with the Wildcats leading 10-8 and with 15:34 left in the first half. At the 13:21 mark, Clayton missed a 3-pointer. Just two minutes later, he missed a 19-footer with 11:26 to go in the first half. Twelve seconds later, Clayton exited the game with a zero in the points column next to his name.

Clayton checked back in with 8:30 to go in the first half. Almost immediately, he made his first 3-pointer of the night at the 8:20 mark. Little did anyone at Welsh-Ryan Arena know that shot would be the start of something magical.

After going back to the bench with 5:56 to go in the first half, Clayton re-entered with 4:15 to go as Northwestern held a five-point lead. With the ‘Cats’ last points having been at the 4:41 mark courtesy of a Jake West free throw, they were stuck at 32 points. Northwestern was in a scoring drought that lasted for close to two minutes before none other than Clayton drilled his second-consecutive triple of the game. Those points were the last the Wildcats scored in the first half as they were up by just one at halftime.

With six points on 2-of-3 shooting from three, Clayton’s stat line wasn’t anything remarkable. He started the second half on the bench as Northwestern led 35-34. When Clayton checked in for the first and only time in the second half at the 14:07 mark, Maryland was leading 47-44. A David Coit free throw and a Solomon Washington layup extended the Terrapins’ lead to 50-44 with 13:21 to go. At this point, it felt like yet another game was starting to slip away from Northwestern in the second half.

That’s when Clayton delivered the half of his life. At the 13:06 mark, he made his third 3-pointer of the game, tying his career-high for made threes in a single game. After a West triple tied the game up at 50-50, Clayton again delivered, drilling his fourth three to give Northwestern a 53-50 lead with 11:59 remaining and forcing Maryland coach Buzz Williams to call timeout.

Out of the timeout, Clayton kept the spotlight on him, draining his fifth triple of the night to give Northwestern a six-point lead with 10:19 to go in the game. To cap off his career night, Clayton made yet another 3-pointer, this time at the 8:08 mark, to reach 18 points. He would put in 2-of-4 free throws down the stretch to finish with 20. Despite the crowd not being the fullest, Clayton’s performance had Welsh-Ryan Arena rocking and helped Northwestern maintain momentum.

“I would say that’s the highest number of threes [Northwestern] made,” coach Williams said after the game.

In total, the ‘Cats shot 12-of-21 from beyond the arc: their best long-range shooting performance of the season. Clayton was the highlight of this performance, even stealing the show from Martinelli’s 29-point bounce-back game and Andre Mills’ career-high 39-point performance for Maryland (the most points scored by any player at Welsh-Ryan Arena since 2004 in an NCAA men’s basketball game).

“His shooting in the second half really gave everybody confidence,” Collins said about Clayton. “He kept knocking them down, really proud of Jordan.”