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Derik Queen hits first buzzer-beater of 2025 NCAA Tournament, pushes Maryland past Colorado State

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater•03/23/25•

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Steven Bisig | Imagn Images

The first two rounds of the 2025 NCAA Tournament hadn’t had as much madness as we’d usually want or expect. However, that changed tonight in Seattle with the first game-winner of the event.

Down one with just under four seconds left, Maryland’s Derik Queen drove left and hit a running fadeaway off the glass at the buzzer to win it for the Terrapins at 72-71 and knock off No. 12 Colorado State. That’ll send the Terps into the Sweet 16 for the fifteenth time in school history and for the first time in almost a decade.

“I mean, I couldn’t do it without my team,” Queen said postgame to Andy Katz. “Like, we was down and then, and then Ju (Reese), Jo (Geronimo), Selton (Miguel), and all those seniors? We didn’t want, uh, want this to be their last game. So we just kept fighting and kept fighting. My coaches and my teammates trusted me to take that last shot.”

“I mean, so I think – I’m from Baltimore. That’s why,” said Queen of his confidence to hit the season-saving shot. “And then, and then I kinda had it going all game, me and my teammates had it going. Like I said, they trusted me to take that last shot.”

Maryland wasn’t glad to be in that place again in the closing seconds against the Rams. CSU had, after a back-and-forth second half, hit a three-pointer from Jalen Lake to take the lead and have what would have been the fifth and final game-winner hit on the Terrapins just this season – three in the regular season from Northwestern, Ohio State, and Michigan State and one from Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament to represent their only four losses since January 7th. That was before Queen saved them from that familiar fate with his own winner at the buzzer this time.

Queen, their leading scorer and rebounder this season, led the Terps again with 17 points (58.3% FG), six rebounds, and two blocks in the one-point win. Their starting lineup as a whole was as effective as they have been too with double figures for all of them from Rodney Rice (16), Reese (15 points, 11 rebounds), Ja’Kobi Gillespie (11 points, seven assists), and Miguel (11).

The NCAA Tournament had picked up over the weekend with the games across all four regions during the Round of 32. That was highlighted by this shot from Queen, travel or not, with it being the first game-winner this year in March Madness.

Kevin Willard reveals unusual method behind drawing up game-winner: ‘He said give me the MF ball’

Kevin Willard was trying to decide in the huddle who was getting the ball for Maryland in the final seconds of a one-point game against Colorado State. That’s when Queen spoke up and said, “give me the MF ball”.

That decision worked out in the end. It did with Queen delivering a buzzer-beating bank shot to lift his team to victory in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.