SAN FRANCISCO — Maryland men’s basketball’s run in the NCAA Tournament stopped short of the ultimate finish line.

A promising season that included more highs than lows and had fans dreaming of a coveted national title ended Thursday night as the No. 4 seed Terps succumbed to top-seeded Florida, 87-71, in a Sweet 16 matchup of the West Region at Chase Center.

Maryland stayed competitive with the Gators for much of the first half and trailed, 40-38, at halftime. But the Gators opened the second half by scoring 12 of the period’s first 16 points and eventually opened up an 18-point advantage midway through the period to put the game out of reach.

The setback capped a bewildering two-week stretch for the program during which the university and coach Kevin Willard began working on a contract extension, Willard announcing the departure of athletic director Damon Evans to SMU while fighting for “fundamental changes” to the school’s name, image and likeness revenue-sharing plan, Willard telling an area radio show that, “As of right now, I’m staying,” and sidestepping questions about his future.

During his postgame news conference, Willard did not provide an update on his status and said his biggest concern was determining who would replace Evans.

“I don’t know who we’re going to hire,” he said. “In today’s day and age, that worries me a little bit. I’m just being honest. My honesty got me in trouble, might as well keep getting me in trouble. So this is going to be a family decision. I love College Park. I love Maryland. But when you’re at this point in your career and you’re looking at things, I have to take everything into consideration moving forward. But I have not even talked to anybody. So I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Sophomore shooting guard Rodney Rice said Willard addressed his future with the players.

“He said he was staying,” Rice said. “He’s fighting for some changes, and that’s that.”Both Rice and graduate student small forward Selton Miguel said the cloud surrounding Willard did not impact the team.

“We got this far and whatever Coach Willard had going on, that didn’t affect us,” Miguel said. “But at the same time, we just came together as a team and not make everything else about the outside noise.”

Said Rice: “It’s not a distraction. We’re just playing ball at the end of the day. I see everything on Twitter and all of that stuff, but it doesn’t distract me. I just play.”

Making their first appearance in the Sweet 16 since 2016, the Terps (27-9) absorbed their third consecutive setback in this stage of the tournament.

They were denied their first berth in the Elite Eight since 2002, when that squad captured the school’s first and only national championship.

Maryland had won the previous two meetings with Florida but dropped to 2-3 in the all-time series. Thursday’s game was the first in the postseason between the two programs.

Freshman center Derik Queen led the Terps by scoring a game-high 27 points and adding five rebounds and two steals, and junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie compiled 17 points and two steals before fouling out with 2:54 left in the game. Senior power forward Julian Reese accumulated 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, and Rice chipped in 10 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Queen accrued 594 points as a freshman, surpassing the previous rookie record of 582 points held by Joe Smith during the 1993-94 season. Queen, who is expected to enter the upcoming NBA draft where he has been projected by some publications as a lottery pick, said he also was awaiting clarity on his future.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “I have to talk to my mom, my agency, Coach Willard, all the coaches, see what I’m doing.”

But Maryland — which got a rare zero-point effort from Miguel, who last finished a game with zero points on Nov. 24 against Villanova — labored against a Gators opponent that prides itself on using its athleticism and length to feed an offense that entered the game ranked second in the nation in fastbreak points per game (16.5) and third in points per game (85.4). The Gators outrebounded the Terps, 42-20, owned a 21-9 advantage in second-chance points, and got 29 points from their bench while Maryland’s reserves produced just three points as Florida put up a season high in points against the Terps.

“They come from kind of a physical conference, the SEC,” Reese said. “They’re really deep. They have a lot of 6-[foot-]10 and taller guys coming off the bench, whereas we’ve got a little bit shorter guys. They just kind of outhustled us and rebounded better.”

Six players for Florida (33-4) finished in double figures.

Senior shooting guard Will Richard racked up 15 points, four rebounds and three steals, graduate student shooting guard Alijah Martin amassed 14 points and seven rebounds, and All-American first-team point guard and senior Walter Clayton Jr. had 13 points and four assists.

The Gators collected their ninth straight victory and improved to 10-1 in the Sweet 16. They will meet either No. 3 seed Texas Tech (27-8) or No. 10 seed Arkansas (22-13) in the West Region final on Saturday at a time to be announced.

Florida persevered despite losing starting sophomore power forward Alex Condon, who limped off the floor without putting any weight on his right ankle with 12:16 left in the first half. Condon, who entered the game averaging 11.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists, returned briefly in the second half and finished with four points and two rebounds.

The Gators also overcame turning over the ball 17 times, including 13 in the first half. They entered the game with just 10.7 giveaways per game.

After losing eight games by a combined 28 points, the Terps could not keep pace with Florida, who won their 26th game this season by double digits.

“We were elite in the second half,” Gators coach Todd Golden said. “We did a great job staying aggressive, handling their pressure and their quickness and their length. Our defense stayed consistent. We were awesome on the glass all night, both sides of the ball. And we started taking advantage of the opportunities we got in transition. That allowed us to step on the gas a little bit and break away from them.”

The setback essentially puts an end to the “Crab Five” starting group that spawned T-shirts and became popular on social media. In addition to Queen, Reese, a Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate, and Miguel have exhausted their eligibility.

After Maryland opened the scoring with a fastbreak layup by Gillespie just 23 seconds into the game, Florida seized control, eventually racing to a 20-9 advantage that included 11 straight points in a 3:30 stretch.

The Terps countered with a 21-7 run in a 5:27 span.

Four straight free throws by Queen gave them a 28-27 lead — their first since that 2-0 opening — and two more lifted them to a 30-27 difference that would be their largest of the opening frame.

The Gators responded with six consecutive points before Maryland embarked on a 6-2 burst for a 36-35 lead. Florida got a 3-pointer from Martin and a layup from Richard to retake the advantage at 40-35 before Rice nailed a jumper with 32 seconds left for the halftime score.

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