COLLEGE PARK — With scouts from at least 12 NBA teams in attendance for a Big Ten tilt between Maryland and Rutgers, Derik Queen gave them a show.

Queen, the precocious freshman center from Baltimore who is expected to leave after this season for the NBA draft, racked up a career-high 29 points, 15 rebounds and five assists to spark the No. 18 Terps to a 90-81 victory over visiting Rutgers Sunday afternoon before an announced 17,069 at Xfinity Center.

Maryland (18-6, 8-5 Big Ten) bounced back from Thursday’s 73-70 upset loss at Ohio State. It collected its fifth win in the past six games and seventh in the past nine and might have done enough to remain in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll when the rankings are updated on Monday.“The last game, we slipped up,” Queen said. “We missed free throws, we basically gave the game away. So we knew we had to come back and put our foot on their neck.”

If the Terps stay in the poll, they will have Queen, graduate student small forward Selton Miguel and sophomore shooting guard Rodney Rice largely to thank for their performances against the Scarlet Knights. Miguel scored 14 of his 17 points in the first half and added three rebounds and two assists, while Queen registered his second first-half double-double of the season and seventh overall when he accumulated 13 points and 10 rebounds in the opening frame.

After posting 13 points and eight rebounds but missing 6 of 13 free throws in that setback to the Buckeyes, Queen took it upon himself to kickstart his play.

“I knew I had to be better,” he said. “I felt like things were going my way, and my teammates just kept giving me the ball and trusting me to make plays.”

Queen’s eruption didn’t shock coach Kevin Willard.

“I’ve seen that all year,” he said. “So I don’t think that’s the first time. The first game he played in college, I think he had 22 and 20. So I don’t think it matters who’s playing or who’s watching. He’s just that good of a player. He went to Purdue and had 26. So, this is nothing surprising.”

In the second half, Rice scored 12 of his 19 points. And junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie finished with 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Julian Reese, a Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate who had reached double digits in scoring in his past four starts and five of his past six, was hampered by foul trouble as he picked up his second foul midway through the first half and remained on the bench until the second. He had only four points and more turnovers (three) than rebounds and blocks (two each) before fouling out with 4:37 left in the game.

Scouts from NBA teams like the Portland Trailblazers, San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz attended the game to see Queen and fellow freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper of Rutgers. Bailey, a shooting guard, and Harper, a point guard, are projected by some as the Nos. 2 and 3 prospects behind Duke freshman power forward Cooper Flagg, and Queen is viewed as a mid-to-late first-round choice.

For at least one game, Queen outdueled the Scarlet Knights duo. Harper, the son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper Sr. and younger brother of Detroit Pistons small forward Ron Harper Jr., compiled 20 points, four assists and four rebounds. But Bailey was hounded by Rice and managed only four points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and three turnovers.

After the game, Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said Bailey was plagued by a bout of the flu that contributed to his subpar outing.

Queen showed off a variety of skills. He looked as comfortable with his back to the basket as he was driving from the foul line, leaped high for rebounds on the offensive and defensive glass (he had a game-best six offensive boards), and displayed a deft touch when finding teammates for open jumpers or thunderous dunks.

When he stood at the foul line late in the game, Queen was serenaded by students, who chanted, “one more year!”

Queen’s play in the lane was complemented by Maryland’s prowess from 3-point range. Miguel (five 3-pointers), Rice (three) and Gillespie (two) combined for a 10 of 27 outing (37%) that stood in stark contrast to the offense’s 3 of 13 performance (23.1%) in the loss at the Buckeyes.

The Terps got off to a poor start, missing their first eight shots and opening the door for Rutgers to take a 4-0 lead. But Maryland scored seven of the game’s next nine points to jump ahead, 7-6.

After the Scarlet Knights connected on four consecutive field goals to score eight straight points and sprint to a 14-7 advantage, the Terps responded with a 14-4 run. Miguel scored six points and Queen scored five during that spurt to help the team regain a 23-18 lead.

After Rutgers sandwiched a jumper by redshirt senior shooting guard Jeremiah Williams and two free throws by Harper around a 3-pointer by Miguel, Maryland scored eight straight points for a 34-22 advantage. A few minutes later, it used a 10-5 spurt to go up to 46-31 and enjoy its biggest lead of the game late in the first half.

In the second, the Scarlet Knights scored eight straight points to trim a 14-point deficit to six. But Rice scored nine points in the period to keep the Terps ahead, and Queen later scored eight of their 12 points to cement the outcome.

Willard acknowledged that he discussed with the players their collapse against Ohio State when they squandered an 11-point advantage with less than eight minutes to go.

“We talked about that in a very positive way about we’re kind of doing the same thing we did at Ohio State,” he said. “We had gotten out of that rhythm. We did the same thing at Indiana. We got up nine at Indiana, and we let them come all the way back. This is a confident group, which is great, but sometimes they take the foot off the gas a little bit, and what they’re learning is, you cannot do that in this conference.”

In addition to Harper, freshman small forward Dylan Grant posted 19 points and eight rebounds, and freshman center Lathan Sommerville had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Scarlet Knights (12-12, 5-8). But they lost for the fourth time in six games.

“Maryland’s really good,” Pikiell said. “I knew they were really good on film. Better live. Kevin’s done a great job. They’ve got a lot of answers.”

Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.