The 18th ranked Maryland Terrapins beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 90-81 much to the delight of the 17,069 fans and students dressed in black as part of “Black Out Sunday” at an ecstatic Xfinity Center.
The game had 47 NBA scouts and Executives in attendance and featured three top freshmen from the Class of 2024 but it was Maryland’s Queen who was King of them all.
Derik Queen finished the game with a career-high 29 points,15 rebounds and five assists propelling the Terps to victory and improving to (18-6, 8-5 Big Ten).
Rutgers roster featured freshman Dylan Harper and fellow top freshman Ace Bailey.
According to 247sports.com all three players are potential NBA 2025 Draft Lottery picks.
The Terps Rodney Rice scored 19 points, and senior Selton Miguel finished the game with 17 points on 5-8 shooting from three-point range.
Fellow guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie also stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
The Terps started off slow and were down 14-7 with 13:37 to go in the first half and Coach Willard had to use his first time out to get the team out of their funk.
Maryland tied the game at 16-16 on a Queen free throw with 11:59 to go in the first half.
The Terps offense began humming and they led 49-35 behind the last of Miguel’s four first half three pointers with 28 second to go before the half and led 49-38 at the break.
Maryland led the entire second half but Rutgers made it interesting cutting their lead to 56-53 with 14:03 to go in the game.
Rutgers kept the pressure on Maryland, but the Terps continued to maintain the lead up 69-62 on a Queen dunk with 9:15 to go in the game.
The Terps then went on a 10-4 run to increase the lead to 79-66 with 5:48 to play in the game.
The Scarlet Knights kept trying to catch the Terps in the second half but Maryland’s lead never dropped below seven points allowing them to pick up a sweet Big Ten victory at home.
Maryland held Rutgers to 41 percent shooting for the game and the defense was really good beyond the arc as the Scarlet Knights only made three of 16 three pointers.
As for Maryland the Terps shot 45 percent from the floor and made 10 of 27 three pointers.
Rutgers made 26 of 31 free throws and the Terps were only 22-34 from the charity stripe which kept the game closer that it should have been.
The Scarlet Knights won the rebounding battle 43-37.
Rutgers was led in scoring by Harper who finished with 20 points while fellow freshman Bailey was not able to give much of an audition for the scouts as he was sick and sitting on the bench with a towel over his head for much of the second half. He ended the game with only four points in a losing effort for the (12-12, 5-8) Scarlet Knights.
