Maryland men’s basketball center Derik Queen grabbed a rebound and found guard Rodney Rice chugging down the right side of the Xfinity Center court.

Like a quarterback to a wide receiver, Queen chucked a near-full court pass that seemed to telegraph Rice’s route. The ball took one bounce in front of the guard before he snagged it and, with no Mount St. Mary’s defender in his sight, went up for a layup.

Rice converted for two points plus a foul from the trailing defender. The crowd erupted as Maryland extended its first-half lead to 23 as part of a 29-3 Terps run. The Virginia Tech transfer scored 26 first-half points to lead Maryland past Mount St. Mary’s, 86-52, on Friday.

“Ball went in the air, hit the court. I just went after it,” Rice said. “Defender wasn’t gonna get there before me.”

Rice played sparingly in a blowout second period, adding just two points to finish the night shooting 10-for-14 from the field and 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.

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It was evident after the Terps’ season-opening win against Manhattan that Rice would be a key cog in their offense. He finished his debut with 12 points, which led the bench and was third on the team. On Friday, Rice showed he has a different gear to reach when he’s confident and makes swift decisions.

“The ball found me a lot,” Rice said. “I’m very fortunate for that, and I felt in rhythm when I got it as well.”

He checked in less than three minutes into the game and converted his first field goal two minutes later on a fast break dunk. The guard only had four points when he checked out for the first time at the 12-minute mark. That quickly changed.

Rice scored 10 straight for Maryland (2-0) in less than two minutes to help the Terps go on a 16-point run late in the first half. His 26 points before the break well-eclipsed his previous career high of 17  on March 8, 2023.

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The Mountaineers (1-1) jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the game’s first four minutes behind a hot shooting start. Maryland, who also started sluggishly in its season-opener against Manhattan, slowly fought back and took its first lead of the game at the 11:38 mark. The Terps pulled ahead for good less than a minute later on a pair of Queen free throws.

Outside of Rice, Maryland didn’t shoot a particularly large quantity of threes. Guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie shot 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and looked comfortable taking them when his defender ducked under ball screens. The Belmont transfer shot an efficient 50 percent from the field on eight shot attempts.

Not many other players took 3-pointers, though — those two combined for six of the Terps’ nine deep balls. Maryland finished the night shooting 39 percent on 23 attempts.

No Maryland starter played more than 23 minutes as the game was well out of hand by the end of the first period. Coach Kevin Willard said limiting his starters’ mileage in the early portion of the season could prove crucial come Big Ten play.