SEATTLE — When in doubt, go to your NBA prospect.
That was Maryland’s plan out of the timeout with 3.7 seconds remaining and the Terps trailing 71-70. And Derik Queen answered the call, driving left before hitting a fallaway jumper at the buzzer to give Maryland an improbable 72-71 win.
Queen confirmed after the game that it was the first buzzer-beater of his career, prompting Maryland coach Kevin Willard to joke, “I wouldn’t have given him the ball if I’d known that.”
But really, he was always going to Queen, particularly after the Big Ten Freshman of the Year told his coach in the huddle, “I want the motherf—ing ball.”
Willard obliged, drawing up a play for Queen and reminding his guys that for the first time this season, they had time to make a winning play, instead of being on the losing end of one.
The Terps’ last four losses, dating back to a trip to Northwestern in mid-January, came on the game’s final possession.
“It’s our time,” he told them, “to make our moment happen.”
It was the first, and so far only, buzzer-beater of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Derik Queen on why Kevin Willard is a head coach players can listen to:
“First, he did pay us the money…” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/0rcVJiKydx
— Wesley Brown (@W_Brown21) March 24, 2025
“Give Colorado State a lot of credit,” Willard said afterward. “They’re an excellent basketball team. I feel bad that they had to go that way, but I really felt like maybe we were due eventually for one of those to go for us.”
With Colorado State’s loss, this is the first NCAA Tournament since 2007 with no teams seeded 11th or lower in the Sweet 16. CSU coach Niko Medved called it “gut-wrenching”
“I thought we did just about everything right in this game,” Medved said. “I thought we defended that last play pretty well. It’s about all we could ask for, and he made a freaking unbelievable shot. That’s what happens in March Madness and sometimes you’re on their side of it and sometimes you’re on ours.
“There’s nothing I’m going to say to these guys to make ’em feel better.”
Medved was asked if he thought Queen traveled.
“I haven’t seen the video yet,” he said. “It’s going to be hard for me to watch. I’m sure I will at some point. I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But it doesn’t matter. They didn’t call one (laughing). So whether it was or wasn’t, they didn’t call one and they never go back and change the call. But again, he made a really difficult shot, guys. I mean, he made a really, really difficult shot and they just made one more play than we did.”
The Terps led for fewer than six minutes total, and it looked like they were going to head home when Colorado State’s Jalen Lake drained a 3-pointer with six seconds to play. It was CSU’s first 3 in more than 18 minutes and sent Rams fans into a frenzy across from the CSU bench.
The most impressive part of Maryland’s win: The Terps did not own the paint despite having a major size advantage. Queen finished with a team-best 17 points, but Maryland frequently settled for outside jumpers instead of pounding the ball inside to Queen and Julian Reese. But the big men showed up when needed the most.
Reese, who finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, had six points in the final three minutes, including four big free throws. He also grabbed a key offensive board with 20 seconds to play, which put him at the line for two of those foul shots.
Reese is the younger brother of WNBA All-Star Angel Reese, who set a rebounding record in her rookie season in the league. Julian Reese said afterward he hadn’t heard from her via text but anticipated a congratulatory call soon. He knows he made her proud with that board and said of his decision to attack the glass, “I think it’s just about heart.”
Reese grabbed his 1,000th career rebound in the win.
The Terps are now headed to the Sweet 16 — their first since 2016 — despite not playing anywhere close to their best basketball. Colorado State won the rebounding battle by 10, shot better (47 percent to 42 percent) and outscored Maryland’s bench 18-2.
If the Terps put it all together next weekend in San Francisco, they could be headed for an even deeper run.
(Photo: Stephen Brashear / Imagn Images)
