Julian Reese fought to secure the offensive rebound on the left corner as Maryland trailed by two with a little over two and a half minutes left to play in the game. Oregon quickly trapped the veteran big man and Maryland was forced to burn its last timeout to save the crucial offensive possession. The choice proved to be a costly one.
With less than 15 seconds left to play and the Terps trailing by four, Derik Queen tried to balance himself between the floor and the out of bounds line. Queen’s momentum from securing the defensive board led him out of bounds, but before stepping out, he yelled to the referee. Queen called for a timeout that Maryland didn’t have.
The Chris Webber-esque blunder resulted in two made free throws for the Ducks and the end to any hope of a Terrapin comeback. No. 9 Oregon (13-3, 2-2 Big Ten) defeated Maryland (11-4, 1-3 Big Ten), 83-79, Sunday evening, in the first ever matchup between the schools.
The Ducks led for most of the second half following a 14-0 scoring run to start the period that gave them their first lead of the game.
“Going out of the second half, you know, we just need a little bit more energy to kind of continue what we do to start the game,” said head coach Kevin Willard. “The start of second halves have been absolutely brutal, and we just got to do a better job with those.”
The Terps were able to weather the scoring frenzy and make it a one possession game going into the final 11 minutes.
From that point on the game went back and forth with the Terps regaining the lead with about nine minutes to go and the Ducks doing the same with about five minutes left.
Oregon finished the final five minutes on a 11-5 scoring run receiving contributions from Kwame Evans Jr., Keeshawn Barthelemy, Nate Bittle, and the game’s leading scorer Jackson Shelstad (23 points).
Maryland created multiple chances to score down the stretch playing through Queen and Ja’Kobi Gillespie, but they came up short. The duo were the only ones to score in the final five minutes of action, but went a combined 2-for-6 from the floor in that span. Maryland as a team shot 20 percent from the floor in the final five minutes.
Despite the lack of production down the stretch, the pair had strong bounce back performances after scoring a combined five points in the loss to Washington on Thursday. Queen finished the game with 17 points shooting 46.2 percent from the floor. Gillespie ended with 16 points knocking down three three-pointers.
Rodney Rice was Maryland’s leading scorer with 19 points on an efficient 62.5 field goal percentage. The Terps ended the game shooting 47.5 percent from the floor, 42.9 percent from three, and 73.7 percent from the free throw line. Maryland led for over 25 minutes throughout the game — most of which coming in the first half.
“I feel like we’ve gotten our rhythm back offensively,” said Willard. “I thought Rodney got his rhythm back, you know, and Derik, you know, played a much more aggressive [game], which I like. I thought offensively, we got some good rhythm.”
Queen and Gillespie were a large factor in Maryland’s strong start contributing to the Terps’ 45 points in a fast-paced first half. Maryland led by three going into the break shooting 54.3 percent from the floor and 41.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Queen ended the first half with eight points on 4-for-8 shooting from the field, making more shots and scoring more points than he did against the Huskies. Gillespie did the same, scoring five points on two made buckets — one of which from three-point range.
Even with the strong starts from two of Maryland’s leading scorers and ten points from Rice, Oregon was able to keep the game close via the contributions of Jackson Shelstad.
Shelstad finished the first half as the game’s leading scorer (14 points) shooting a stellar 5-for-5 from the field and 4-for-4 from three. Half of his three-point makes came during a 11-2 Ducks’ scoring run that cut Maryland’s 13-point lead to two with about six minutes to go in the half.
Shelstad ended up missing only two of the ten shots he attempted in the game staying perfect from the three-point line, knocking down all five of his attempts. The Ducks finished the game making 12 three-pointers against a Maryland defense that allowed 90 made threes coming into the game.
“We have to just get back, spend three days of good practice back in College Park and get our defense back to where it needs to be,” Willard said.
The loss results in Maryland ending its inaugural west coast trip with two losses in a new look Big Ten conference.
The Terps will make the cross country trek to College Park for another matchup with a new member of the Big Ten as they take on No. 15 UCLA on January 10 striving to end their three game conference losing streak.
