Maryland men's basketball battle to a conference victory over Minnesota
Maryland Men's Basketball vs. Minnesota at Xfinity Center in College Park, MD on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. Maryland Athletics. (Courtesy of Maryland Athletics)
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Maryland Terrapins (13-5, 3-3) battled to a 77-71 victory against the Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-9, 0-6) Monday night at the Xfinity Center.
The Terps looked to keep their foot on the gas in this contest against unranked Minnesota after a confidence-boosting win against then No. 22 UCLA. Minnesota looked to end their three game skid with their last game being a 21-point defeat to Wisconsin.
Derik Queen was playing with something to prove after struggling against UCLA. He finished Monday’s game with a career-high 27 points and seven rebounds. This is the most points scored by a Maryland freshman since Justin Jackson’s 28-point performance coincidentally against Minnesota on Jan. 28, 2017. Ja’Kobi Gillespie offered 15 points, seven assists, and five rebounds of his own.
“Sometimes you just got to be nice and simple and get it to your best players in a two-man game,” said Maryland head coach Kevin Willard.
The score was 32-35 going into halftime. Dawson Garcia led all scorers with 12, while Queen led the Terps with nine.
“I mean, that’s really on us; we didn’t have a lot of energy coming out, warming up, so we just got to be better,” said Gillespie on the slow start.
After struggling in the first half, the Terps caught their stride as Queen and Gillespie took over the offense. With just three minutes to play, the Terps slowed their offense while up seven to get out of this game with a victory. A Queen lob pass to Tafara Gapare deflated Minnesota, and Garcia followed up with a travel late in the shot clock, Maryland led by nine.
“I feel like he makes a lot of big plays, like the big block, the dunk was big,” Gillespie said about Gapare’s momentum-swinging plays.
Coming out early, neither team could miss a shot going into the first timeout break as the score was 14-11, with Maryland leading at just five minutes of play. Gillespie, coming off his 27-point outing against UCLA, added five points early, while the Golden Gophers’ Garcia had six points with two threes.
“He’s used to the physicality, and he’s actually bigger and stronger than I expected,” said Queen on Garcia’s impact.
The Terps offense slowed down, but the Gophers did not. Isaac Asuma knocked down his second three, assisted by Garcia.
Maryland found another spark after Rodney Rice knocked down his first three but seventh point of the game. Gillespie added another layup on a smooth drive, and on the next possession, Julian Reese had a dunk assisted by Selton Miguel to cut the lead down to two.
Derik Queen put in a layup with contact to send him to the free throw line with three minutes to go into halftime. Queen hit another jump shot to cut the lead to 30-33, and a couple of stops and “defense” chants got the crowd involved.
Queen had a fast break slam dunk assisted by Gillespie, but Garcia responded right away before the end of the half.
Miguel added a three while Queen added another layup, yet the Terps were still down by five. After a Queen rejection and a Rice jump shot off an assist from Gillespie, another fast break sent Rice to the line for two free throws after a Garcia foul. He hit both making the score 41-42 and giving the Terps all the momentum.
With 15 minutes to play, Garcia added another layup with contact to extend the lead once again. Rice knocked down another three, assisted by Queen, to tie up the game, but Asuma added a layup to take the lead back. Queen knocked down two free throws on the ensuing possession to tie it back up at 46 a piece.
A Gapare block sparked a fast break where Gillespie knocked down a three-pointer off Gapare’s assist. On the very next play, an outlet pass from Gillespie set up a Queen dunk, pushing the lead to 51-48 in favor of the Terps. Gillespie pushed the lead to six after a layup with 11 minutes to play.
Queen continued his game with two free throws followed by a dunk follow-up after Miguel was rejected from behind to extend the Terps’ lead to seven.
Rice added 21 points and Gapare added two rejections of his own. Reese added eight rebounds and two blocks. Maryland forced the Gophers into a season-high 16 turnovers opposed to their 10 and stifled Minnesota with five blocks. Maryland was out and running as they had 17 points from fast breaks and Minnesota only finished with four.
Maryland will be away in their next contest against Northwestern but will be back at the Xfinity Center on Sunday afternoon to battle Nebraska.