COLLEGE PARK — Early in Maryland men’s basketball’s game against Southern California, Derik Queen had a chance for a fastbreak dunk before banging the ball off the back rim and out.
That missed opportunity was one of few miscues made by the No. 20 Terps as they had too much firepower to be contained by the visiting Trojans in an 88-71 victory Thursday night before an announced 14,662 at Xfinity Center.
Maryland (21-6, 11-5 Big Ten) collected its fourth consecutive win and eighth in the past nine games. The team also improved to 16-1 at Xfinity Center this season, tying St. John’s and Missouri for the most home wins among NCAA Division I schools so far.
More importantly, the Terps remained close behind No. 11 Wisconsin (20-5, 10-4) and No. 13 Purdue (19-7, 11-4) in the hunt for a top-four seed in the Big Ten Tournament and a double-bye to the quarterfinal round. They currently sit in fifth place in the conference with five games left in the regular season.
Sophomore shooting guard Rodney Rice ignited Maryland by scoring 15 of his game-high 22 points in the second half and accumulating four rebounds and two assists. Junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 11 of his 20 points in the second half and accrued four assists, two rebounds and two steals, and senior power forward Julian Reese, a Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate, compiled his 13th double-double of the season on 19 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Queen, the star freshman from Baltimore, registered the 10th double-double of his fledgling career with 13 points, 17 rebounds and three assists, and graduate student small forward Selton Miguel finished with 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. For the sixth time this season, the Terps had every starter score 10 points or more and broke a tie with Kentucky for the most such performances among teams from the so-called power conferences.
Rice leads the team with an active streak of seven straight double-digit outings in points, and coach Kevin Willard said that Rice has met every expectation since transferring from Virginia Tech.
“Rod’s been good all year,” he said. “The best thing about Rodney is, he’s fun to coach. He’s very coachable, and he’s a great competitor. I knew he was a good player, but he’s so consistent every day. Every game, he leads us in plus/minus. Every game, he’s going out there, and he’s got a great knack. He’s a scorer. I think that’s why that’s helped him to be so consistent.”
Gillespie made 5 of 8 shots from 3-point range and 2 of 4 shots elsewhere. In his last 12 starts against Big Ten competition, he has finished with less than 14 points only once.
“I just think he’s getting comfortable with Big Ten play,” Willard said. “The size and length of guards that he’s seen, he didn’t see that at Belmont. He saw really good guards, but not the size and length, and I think it just took him a little time to get used to what shots he can take, what shots he can do. I think he’s comfortable in the offense now. It still was a new offense for him for half of the year. So I think he’s just gotten much more confident with what he can do, and he’s much more confident going into games now.”
The opening four minutes of each half proved to be the catalyst for Maryland. Over those stretches, they outscored USC, 13-3, in the first half and 15-5 in the second half.
On both occasions, Trojans coach Eric Musselman sought to blunt the Terps’ momentum by using timeouts. On both occasions, the strategy worked for a few minutes, but Maryland regained its rhythm and maintained its advantage.
Rice said Willard implored the players to repeat what they did early in the first half before they opened the second.
“He just said keep pushing the pace, play fast,” Rice said. “That’s what we do, and that’s how we’re going to create opportunities, just pushing the pace really.”
In the first half, the Terps sprinted to an 18-5 lead in the first 5:56. But the Trojans rallied back, working their way to draw within 30-27 with 2:28 remaining thanks largely to redshirt freshman shooting guard Wesley Yates III’s 11 points.
But USC did not score another point in the period, and Maryland scored seven unanswered points on 5 of 6 free throws and a dunk by Queen to take a 37-27 lead into halftime.
The Terps continued to pressure the Trojans in the second half, embarking on a 15-5 run for a 52-32 advantage that marked its largest of the game. USC tried several times to make a comeback, but the team never got closer than six points.
Yates paced the Trojans with a team-best 21 points and two rebounds, sophomore shooting guard Kevin Patton Jr. came off the bench to contribute 11 points and two assists and senior small forward Saint Thomas finished with 10 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals. But USC (14-12, 6-9) dropped its second game in a row and fourth in its past five, slipped to 2-4 this winter against ranked opponents and remained winless in four all-time meetings with Maryland.
The Trojans are 2-12 when scoring fewer than 77 points. The Terps improved to 18-2 when scoring more than 77 points.
Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.
No. 14 Michigan State at No. 20 Maryland
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
TV: Big Ten Network
Radio: 105.7 FM
