Derik Queen, after one brave decision, rose against the immense pressure of playing the last ball and sent his team, the Maryland Terrapins, to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016.
It was a dream come true for him.
With 3.7 seconds left on the clock and Maryland trailing, the Terrapins coach, Kevin Willard had a tough decision called timeout with a tough decision to make. On whose shoulders should the responsibility of advancing to the Sweet 16 rest? And then, Derik Queen stepped up.
“Sometimes, you can draw something up for a guy that maybe doesn’t want the basketball, and his exact words were, ‘I want the MF ball,'” Willard said. “So once he said that it was a pretty simple decision.”
Queen delivered, just like he said he would capping the already thrilling night at Climate Pledge Arena and giving the No. 4 seed Maryland another shot.
The Terrapins would face the no. 1 seed, Florida, on Thursday for a shot at moving further into the competition.
“That was my first game-winner,” said Queen. “When coach drew up the play, my teammates trusted me and he trusted me. I was a little bit nervous, but I knew we was due for one and I had to — had to — make this.”
Julian Reese, Brother of WNBA Star Angel Reese, was also very impressive. He scored a couple of free throws towards the end to give Maryland a fighting chance.
“I haven’t looked at my messages yet, but I know she’s probably going crazy,” Reese said of his sister.
“But as far as the rebounding running in the family, I think it’s just a heart thing. We just play the game with so much intensity and just wear our feelings on our sleeve and just try to play our hardest. I just really didn’t want that to be our last game so I just really wanted to play real hard.”
Every Terrapin player on the court knew they needed the win when Willard called timeout with nearly four seconds on the clock. They only had a chance for one quick shot. It was then or never.
“I could see everyone’s body language kind of perk up a little bit because he was so confident in the fact that he wanted the basketball,” Willard said.
“So, it was just a simple zipper. Give him the basketball and let him go to work.”
The Terrapins are known to be fighters. Their last four losses came with one shot from their opponents in the last few seconds.
“… I’m just happy for them. This is a moment they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. I’m still going to be coaching for hopefully 10 or 12 more years. But for these guys, Ju’s a senior, DQ’s going to the pros, Rod’s going to be around with me for a while, but it’s a great experience for them,” Willard said.
