SEATTLE — Derik Queen at the buzzer, and Maryland advanced to the Sweet 16 in a thriller, beating Colorado State 72-71 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
Jalen Lake with 6 seconds left to give No. 12 seed Colorado State a 71-70 lead. The Rams were seeking to become the lowest-seeded team to reach a regional semifinal in this edition of March Madness, which had been light on upsets and buzzer-beaters.
Queen took care of the last-second heroics, even though his team was the favored one.
Maryland coach Kevin Willard called timeout with 3.6 seconds left and got the ball to Queen, the 6-foot-10 freshman center from Baltimore, who drove to his left, elevated over two defenders and kissed it off the glass as the horn sounded. The Terrapins advanced to face the West Region’s No. 1 seed, Florida, in San Francisco.
Queen led fourth-seeded Maryland (27-8) with 17 points, Rodney Rice scored 16 and Julian Reese had 15 points and 11 rebounds as each of Maryland’s starters known as the “Crab Five” scored in double figures. Maryland’s bench totaled two points.
Nique Clifford had 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Colorado State (26-10) and Lake scored 13 points.
Willard, Maryland’s third-year coach who before the first round spoke candidly about his frustrations with the program as he seeks a contract extension, took a team to the Sweet 16 for the first time in seven March Madness appearances, five with Seton Hall and one with the Terps.
Maryland trailed by 12 in the first half and was down seven at the break, but the Terps methodically worked their way back in the second half, using their height advantage to pull ahead during the back-and-forth closing minutes.
The Rams hit their first five shots from the field for an early lead, and a 13-2 run pushed their advantage to 12 midway through the first half. Maryland responded with a run of its own, and a layup by Clifford at the first-half buzzer gave Colorado State a 37-30 lead.
1K for Ju
Reese pulled down a missed Colorado State jumper in the first half for his 1,000th career rebound, joining Len Elmore as the only Terps player to reach the milestone. Elmore had 1,053 boards from 1971-74.
Ram record
Clifford’s two-handed dunk in the second half allowed him to break the program’s single-season scoring mark set by Pat Durham in 1977-78.
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