Maryland falls at No. 8 Purdue 83-78 after a hard fought back-and-forth game.

Derik Queen and Jakobi Gillespie led the way with some nice help from Rodney Rice and Selton Miguel.

Queen had a staggering 26 points 12 rebounds and knocked down 2 threes. Jakobi Gillespie scored 18 points and knocked down 4 threes on 7 attempts.

Juju Reese had a slow game, only having five points, while being riddled with foul trouble. He fouled out late in the second half.

Takeaways:

It looks like the Terps can be competitive with anybody in the nation.

Juju Reese is more important to the Terps interior defense then we may have thought. Tafara Gapare and Jordan Geronimo (granted he was coming off of an injury) were not able to help Queen down low like Juju is.

Transition Defense and Pick and Roll Defense need to improve. The Terps defense is elite when they are able to get set and switch productively on the pick and roll, but when a guard as good as Braden Smith or a big as good as Eric Dixon enter the conversation it gets dicey.

Braden Smith is amazing BUT Derik Queen showed he was just as amazing. Those two might be the front runners of the Big Ten Player of The Year Award. No Kidding.

We are going to need to have more offensive production off of the bench. Gapare has been great off the bench for the last couple of weeks but a quite night from him, Jay Young, and DHS left the offensive productivity all up to the starters.

JuJu Reese needs to avoid foul trouble and be efficient. The team was much better with him on the court today, he needs to find a way to play all possible minutes.

Now the Terps’ look forward to a stretch of easier games before the rest of Big Ten play. They sit at 1-1 in the conference and won’t have to play against no. 8 Purdue again this season.

image via x/noceilingsnba