Maryland stunned again on buzzer-beater, this time by Michigan in Big Ten semifinals

INDIANAPOLIS — In a classic big man battle made for March, All-Big Ten first teamers Derik Queen and Vladislav Goldin stole the show.

The ending, however, would be all too familiar to Maryland fans against an opponent from Michigan.

Wolverines guard Tre Donaldson made a coast-to-coast layup with less than a second to go, and Maryland lost for the fourth time this season on a buzzer-beater, losing 81-80 to Michigan Saturday in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

“It’s a learning lesson. That’s the way I talked to them. That’s the way we’re going to look at it,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. “We did a lot of things right to get to that spot. We just did one thing wrong.”

It was a similar gut punch to the one Maryland took from another Michigan Tre — Tre Holloman, whose half-court buzzer-beater in College Park stunned the Terrapins in a 71-65 loss Feb. 26.

“We pressed,” Queen said. “He got past our guards, got past the second line, and then went in, made a layup.”

Queen was sensational, scoring a career-high 31 points — 20 in the second half — on 10-of-19 shooting. His 11th 20-plus point performance of the season is the most ever by a Maryland freshman.

The Terrapins (25-8) also received double-digit performances from Selton Miguel (16 points), Julian Reese (13) and Ja’Kobi Gillespie (10). Rodney Rice, who scored 26 in Maryland’s quarterfinal win, was held to eight points and didn’t make a field goal until midway through the second half.

“We’re not satisfied,” Miguel said. “Of course it happened. We had four losses, all buzzer beaters. But the main focus is just, you know, stick together all the time, and keep playing. I know we came down to the last play, but we did everything we could to win the game.”

Maryland was playing in only its third Big Ten Tournament semifinal since joining the league in 2014 and first since 2016. It will now await its seeding in the NCAA Tournament after missing the tournament last season.

“The greatest thing about this league is there’s so many different styles … so whoever we play on Thursday or Friday, we’re going to see, have seen, that style,” Willard said. “And I think it’s what’s really unique about this conference is it makes you adjust.”

Goldin led Michigan (24-9) with 25 points and 10 rebounds, with fellow 7-foot center Danny Wolf adding 21 points. The Wolverines cleaned up inside, out-rebounding Maryland 47-18.

“Obviously, their size is different, but our guards have to do a much better job of helping rebound,” Willard said. “It’s one thing that has been a little bit of a weakness of ours. And we have two of our starters that have one rebound each. You know, sometimes when you play against bigger teams, you need your guards to go in there and dig them out.”

“It was just them doing it better than us,” Reese said. “There wasn’t really any secret to it. It was just them attacking the boards better than us.”

In the final two minutes and with both playing with four fouls, Goldin made a tough layup inside against Reese to put Michigan up 76-74.

Queen would answer with one of his own underneath to tie the game at 76. Seconds later, Donaldson stepped to the far elbow and drained his second three for Michigan to lead again, 79-76.

Maryland would foul after Reese scored with 15 seconds left. But Wolf missed the front end of the one-and-one chance, and Queen made two free throws to give Maryland an 80-79 lead before Donaldson’s winning bucket.

A very deliberate, careful pace characterized the first half. Queen and Goldin started the action with scoring chances against each other inside, as both traded baskets to an even 10-10 score after nearly five minutes.

Even though all of Maryland’s “Crab Five” starting lineup played less than 25 minutes Friday against Illinois, Willard got into his rotations significantly earlier, with Tafara Gapare, Jay Young, Jordan Geronimo and DeShawn Harris-Smith all seeing action just minutes into the game.

Queen tied the game at 14 with a three — only his third of the season — and scored 9 of Maryland’s first 16 points. Two Queen foul shots and a Miguel midrange jumper soon after gave UMD some slight separation, 18-14.

“I work on it every day. I just don’t shoot [it] a lot in a game, one or two a game,” said Queen, who hit a second trey in the second half to double his season total. “Haven’t been making them, but, I mean, they left me open a lot of times.”

Maryland nearly got on a roll, stretching the lead to seven after a Miguel 3-pointer. But Michigan answered with a jumper and a tough layup from Wolf to trim the Terrapins’ lead to 23-20 with 7:49 until halftime.

The Wolverine 7-footer kicked off a 13-2 run that led to Michigan taking the lead back, 29-25. Rice and Miguel missed uncontested back-to-back threes during a 1-of-9 Maryland stretch from the floor.

Willard called a time out to stop the bleeding. And like it has done so many times, it worked.

“I was a little disappointed the way we came out at halftime. I thought they came out very aggressive, and I thought we didn’t come out with the same aggressive that they did,” Willard said. “I knew we’d get back in it, because these guys have battled all year, and they’ve been really good all year.”

Maryland swung the momentum back with a 7-0 run of its own. Reese completed an and-one opportunity, Miguel and Queen added buckets, and the Terrapins went up 32-29 in the final four minutes.

But Michigan ended the half with a flourish. A Gayle three and dunk bookended a wide open Goldin slam dunk as Queen was still on the other end of the floor, and the Wolverines took a 38-34 lead into halftime.

Maryland struggled on the glass, losing the rebound battle 27-12 in the first half while shooting 0-for-5 and not scoring in the final two minutes.

The knockout blow came almost immediately after the break, and on the inside — where Michigan is one of the best teams in the nation.

Goldin picked right back up, scoring six of Michigan’s first eight points of the second half. He added a block of Reese in the paint for good measure, and the Wolverines stacked an 18-0 run that bridged halftime for a commanding 49-34 lead, their biggest of the game, in just 3 minutes.

The Terrapins stayed patient. As Wolf exited to get some rest, which provided some breathing room in the paint, they struck.

Queen — who else? — scored 10 points in a 14-0 Maryland run in the middle of the half, seizing the lead for the first time in the second half, 64-61. The Wolverines didn’t make a shot and turned the ball over four times in the five-minute sequence.

“A lot of it had to do with our offense and defensive rebounding and getting stops and stringing them together,” Reese said. “I think when we were able to do, we bounced back. … We kind of started getting down on ourselves, but we kind of picked ourselves back up and then the shots started falling.”

Goldin — who else? — would answer for Michigan, with a layup that broke a near 8 minute stretch without a basket followed by a three to put Michigan back up 74-71 with four minutes remaining before the back and forth in the games final moments went Michigan’s way.

“It just shows how close we were in those games and how close we were to winning,” Reese said. “If we attack those few extra things, we’ll win those games.”