Terps look to maintain hot start, host Florida A&M Monday night

Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics

Individual performances by new players have been the story for Maryland men’s basketball through two games. Five-star freshman center Derik Queen logged a double-double in his first collegiate game Monday versus Manhattan, and transfer guard Rodney Rice notched a career-high 28 points four days later against Mount St. Mary’s.

Transfer guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie was reliable in both games, making half of his three-point attempts and turning the ball over just once in 50 total minutes on the floor.

Queen and the transfers are quickly becoming favorites at XFINITY Center, as the Terrapins look ahead to the third of five straight home games to open the season. Monday night’s opponent is the Florida A&M Rattlers (0-2) of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

“This is the way Rod’s been playing for the last two or three weeks in practice,” head coach Kevin Willard said after the win versus The Mount. “He’s got a great knack to score. And he’s been working hard so he’s playing well.”

Rice had 26 points at halftime of Friday’s game, and so did the entire Mountaineers team.

The former DeMatha Catholic standout figures to be a key bench piece in the Terps’ second-ever meeting with Florida A&M. The only other matchup took place in 2006, a 93-54 Maryland victory.

The defensive effort also shined Friday, when the Terrapins scored 27 points off of 25 Mountaineer turnovers.

Senior forward Julian Reese had no blocks but cleaned up 10 total rebounds. He’s finished with nine points in both of Maryland’s games thus far.

Transfer guard Selton Miguel also found his footing, dropping 11 points in 22 minutes after he was held out of the second half of the Manhattan game with an ankle injury.

Florida A&M is still searching for its first win of the season, losing handily to TCU and SMU in its first two games. Five of the Rattlers first six games are against teams in Power conferences. Senior guard Sterling Young leads the team with 15.5 points per game on 35.5% shooting.

In both games, Florida A&M gave up at least 40 rebounds while not surpassing 28 of its own. Maryland has logged 42.5 rebounds per game and will look to add to that average against a team that has struggled on the glass. 

Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. and is available on Big Ten Plus.