Maryland men’s basketball boasts one of the best starting units in all of college basketball. When it was needed to step up most on Thursday against Nebraska, all five players came through.
Coach Kevin Willard closed the game with his most trusted five-man group. They scored six clutch buckets in nine tries — with all of the starters scoring at least once during the stretch — to close out the Cornhuskers, 83-75, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“I feel like we earned that win today,” senior big man Julian Reese said. “We were mentally strong today and that was the key to us getting the dub.”
No. 25 Maryland (19-6, 9-5 Big Ten), who’s won six of its last seven games, claimed its sixth Quadrant 1 victory and moved into a tie for fifth place in the Big Ten. It trails fourth-place Wisconsin by just half a game and holds the head-to-head tiebreaker — the top-four seeds receive a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament.
The Terps won the last battle between the two teams, 69-66, on Jan. 19 at Xfinity Center. They nearly blew the game in the final minute after building up a late nine-point lead. But scoring was never a problem this time around.
[Maryland men’s basketball notebook: Derik Queen’s NBA odds, Nebraska’s unique defense]
The Terps shot 58.5 percent from the field and scored on 69 percent of their possessions in the second half. Nebraska couldn’t do much to slow down the visitors in a game where all five starters scored double-digit points — led by 24 and 11 rebounds from freshman big man Derik Queen. No bench player scored a point.
“I was really impressed with our guys that every time they made a run, we had a big-time answer,” Willard said. “Shows you that we’ve grown up a little bit as a team. We didn’t get too [rattled] at all, we just stayed into it, made some big plays.”
The first half consisted of 10 lead changes. Maryland built up a solid lead in the back half of the period on a flurry of 3-pointers from its starting backcourt.
Despite surrendering the ball eight times in the opening period — almost on par with its full-game average of 10.4 — Nebraska had seven turnovers of its own. Both teams made six 3-pointers in the half, but Maryland made six more field goals than the Cornhuskers and shot 55 percent. That was enough to give the Terps a 42-35 lead entering the break.
Maryland got zero bench points in the first half. Queen led with 12 and six rebounds, while the rest of the starting lineup contributed at least six points each. The Terps scored 18 paint points, nearly matching their total of 24 from the teams’ first matchup on Jan. 19.
[Evaluating Derik Queen’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year chances]
The Terps’ hot shooting carried over to the second. They shot a scorching 63.6 percent from the field and, despite going just 1-for-4 from beyond the arc, made up for it with 24 more paint points.
Nebraska held a 10-2 home record on the season entering Thursday, but Maryland had won four of its past six games at Pinnacle Bank Arena and seven of the past eight matchups overall. The Terps’ strong play in one of college basketball’s best environments continued.
“It’s one of the sneakiest hardest places to play in college basketball because it’s a fan base that — no matter what’s going on — they’re going to get 16,000,” Willard said Tuesday on “Vinny & Haynie.” “They get there two hours early. They’re into the game.”
Maryland’s early-season road struggles now feel like an issue of the past.
Since losing their first three road Big Ten games, the Terps are 3-1 away from Xfinity Center. All three of those will likely end up as Quadrant 1 victories, and now Maryland returns home for a three-game stretch with the chance to do some real damage.
