COLLEGE PARK — If the first three games of the men’s college basketball season were preludes to the first real test, then Maryland let a prime opportunity slip away.
The Terps could not protect a four-point lead at halftime and did not have much of a solution for containing Kam Jones as No. 15 Marquette rallied for a 78-74 victory Friday night before an announced 16,124 at Xfinity Center.
Freshman center Derik Queen demonstrated why he was a five-star recruit in high school, amassing 24 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks. The Baltimore native eclipsed his previous career high of 22 points set in Maryland’s season-opening 79-49 rout of Manhattan on Nov. 4.
Junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie added a season-best 24 points and four rebounds, but they were the only players to reach double figures in points as the Terps slipped to 3-1 and failed to secure their 10th 4-0 start in the past 11 seasons.
The setback was the Terps’ fifth in their past six games against a ranked opponent. They dropped to 6-8 against ranked foes under third-year coach Kevin Willard, who took the loss in stride.
“I think this is why you play these early-season tests,” he said. “You’ve got to see where you’re at. That’s a good basketball team, extremely well coached. It’s why I wanted to test these guys early with this, the Villanova game going into Big Ten play with Ohio State and Purdue. So I was really proud of these guys’ effort, really loved the way they kept battling. Just getting a new team to understand the value of every possession.”
Unlike the first three games, when Maryland won each by at least a 30-point margin for the first time in school history, the team labored against the Golden Eagles (3-1). After all, this was an opponent that challenged back-to-back national champion UConn in last winter’s Big East Tournament final, was the No. 2 seed in the South region of the NCAA Tournament and advanced to its first Sweet Sixteen since 2013 before getting ambushed by No. 11 seed North Carolina State.
And neither of the Terps’ first three foes featured a player like Jones. The senior shooting guard demonstrated why he is one of the top players in the Big East by scoring 18 of his game-high 28 points in the second half. In that frame, Jones shot 6 of 9 from the field, including 2 of 3 from behind the 3-point line, converted 4 of 7 free throws and finished with three rebounds.
Senior point guard Stevie Mitchell contributed 18 points and five rebounds, and freshman power forward Royce Parham came off the bench to score 10 points.
“I just appreciate our guys’ togetherness and grit and character to hang in there in the first half when the ball wouldn’t go in for us,” coach Shaka Smart said. “We were getting good shots, but we were missing a lot of layups, a lot of open shots. But they hung in there. I liked the clarity in their eyes at halftime. It’s a good program win. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of getting-better to do.”
And unlike Manhattan, Mount St. Mary’s and Florida A&M, which combined to average 19.7 turnovers, Marquette was much steadier with the ball. The team committed just seven giveaways, and the Terps gained just five points from those miscues.
On the flipside, Maryland turned the ball over 13 times, exceeding its previous high of 10 in the season-opening rout of the Jaspers. That proved costly because the Golden Eagles exchanged those mistakes for 15 points.
Nursing a four-point lead at halftime, the Terps maintained that gap until Marquette scored seven unanswered points in a 1:30 span to assume a 47-44 lead. Gillespie poured in seven consecutive points over a 1:48 stretch, but the Golden Eagles remained ahead.
Maryland then took off on a 7-0 run capped by sophomore shooting guard Rodney Rice’s 3-pointer to reclaim a 59-56 lead. That’s when Jones put on a clinic.
He scored Marquette’s next 12 points in a 3:36 span. The NBA draft prospect ignited the spurt with back-to-back 3-pointers, delivered a layup-and-1 and then sank three of four free throws to put the Golden Eagles ahead 68-61 with 4:45 left in regulation.
The Terps clawed back to get within 68-65 on a layup by Queen and two free throws by graduate student small forward Selton Miguel. After Mitchell sank two free throws to give Marquette a 76-69 lead, Gillespie nailed a 3-pointer and sophomore shooting guard DeShawn Harris-Smith (nine points) made a layup to narrow the deficit to 76-74 with 36 seconds left.
But Gillespie’s layup attempt was blocked with 22 seconds to go, Harris-Smith missed two free throws with 15 seconds left and the Golden Eagles emerged with the win.
Maryland whiffed on four of its last five free throws and finished 9-for-14 for the game. Marquette converted 18 of 24 free throws.
After a relatively quiet span following his 22-point, 20-rebound debut, Queen scored four of the Terps’ first six points to stake the team to a 6-2 lead. But Jones scored eight unanswered points to put Marquette ahead, 10-6.
Miguel’s five points kicked off a 7-3 spurt that tied the score at 13. The sides then traded buckets until Harris-Smith’s back-to-back layups ignited a 7-0 run in a 1:12 span to fuel the Terps’ ascent to a 27-23 lead with 3:32 left in the first half.
Jones’ layup ended a 2:10 drought for the Golden Eagles. But Queen scored five of the period’s last eight points to send Maryland into halftime with a 34-30 lead.
Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at [email protected], 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.
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