SEATTLE — Maryland men’s basketball’s return to College Park will be delayed for a little bit. And that’s a good sign.

Derik Queen’s running buzzer-beating bank shot allowed the No. 4 seed Terps to remain on the West Coast after edging No. 12 seed Colorado State, 72-71, in an NCAA Tournament second-round game Sunday evening at Climate Pledge Arena.

Coming out of a timeout with 3.6 seconds left, Queen drove the left side of the lane and banked a high shot off the glass for what he described as the first game-winner of his career. Video replays appeared to show the freshman center from Baltimore taking three steps before the shot, but officials did not review the play, and the bucket held up.

“When Coach [Kevin Willard] drew up the play, my teammates trusted me, and he trusted me,” he said. “I was a little bit nervous, but I knew I was due for one, and I had to make it.”

Senior power forward Julian Reese, Queen’s former teammate at St. Frances and a Randallstown native, said he and his teammates had faith in Queen.

“We had all the confidence in him,” Reese said. “We knew who the ball was going to, and we had to get the ball into his hands. I felt like he took advantage and does the things he usually does. I was there for the rebound if it came off, and I saw it happen.”

Instead of flying back east, Maryland (27-8) will travel to San Francisco to participate in its first Sweet 16 since 2016. The team will meet No. 1 seed Florida at Chase Center on Thursday at a time to be announced after the Gators (32-4) evicted two-time reigning national champion Connecticut, 77-75, earlier in the day.

Staying in the Pacific time zone is nothing new for the Terps. They carried out a similar strategy in 2001 when that squad defeated George Mason and Georgia State in Boise, Idaho, before flying to Anaheim, California, where they disposed of Georgetown and Stanford before falling to Duke in its first Final Four appearance.

Maryland collected its sixth victory in the past seven games and earned a berth in the third round for the first time in Willard’s three-year tenure. And the team reversed a disheartening trend in which its past four setbacks ended when the opponents connected on game-winning shots in the final seconds.

“I feel bad that they had to go that way,” Willard said, empathizing with how the game ended for the Rams. “But I really felt like maybe we were due eventually for one of those to go for us.”

Queen, the freshman center from Baltimore, amassed a team-high 17 points, six rebounds and two blocks to lead the team. Sophomore shooting guard Rodney Rice scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half and grabbed four rebounds, and senior power forward Julian Reese got his 15th double-double of the season on 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and graduate student small forward Selton Miguel scored 11 points each. Gillespie compiled seven assists, four steals and three rebounds, while Miguel added two rebounds.

Playing in the second round for the first time since 2013, the Rams (26-10) missed their first Sweet 16 berth since 1969 and second overall. They fell one win short of matching the program record for victories in a single season and watched an 11-game winning streak end.

Fifth-year senior shooting guard Nique Clifford lived up to the hype by scoring a game-best 21 points and accruing seven rebounds, six assists and two blocks. Senior shooting guard Jalen Lake had 13 points and two rebounds.

The Terps prevailed despite getting outrebounded, 39-29, and outscored 36-28 in the paint by a Colorado State team that gave away several inches inside. The Rams bench also outscored Maryland’s reserves, 18-2, but Colorado State committed eight turnovers that the Terps converted into 12 points.

Maryland also found its rhythm from distance. After connecting on 4 of 11 3-pointers (36.4%) in the first half, it drained 6 of 13 from long distance (46.2%) in the second.

Trailing 37-30 at halftime, the Terps opened the second half by connecting on three of their first four 3-point attempts — two by Rice and one by Gillespie — to narrow the gap. Five consecutive points by Rice in 24 seconds, including a 3-point play, gave them a 49-47 lead with 13:39 to go — the team’s first since 8-6 with 17:25 left in the first half.

But Colorado State responded with a 7-3 spurt capped by four straight points by graduate student guard Bowen Born for a 54-52 lead. After a media timeout, Miguel nailed a 3-pointer, stole the ball and slammed home a dunk to return the advantage to Maryland at 57-54 with 11:11 remaining.

The Rams refused to wilt. They scored six straight points in a 2:02 span for a 60-57 lead. But the Terps went on an 11-8 burst for a 68-68 tie.

Two free throws by Reese, a Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate, with 22 seconds to go gave Maryland a 70-68 lead. Colorado State promptly regained the lead on Lake’s 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds remaining. That set up Queen’s heroics that touched off a raucous celebration.

Upon hearing Queen acknowledge that was the first game-winner of his career, Willard joked that he would not have drawn up the play for Queen. But he later said the freshman demanded the chance to win the game for the team.

“I asked the guys, ‘Who wants the ball?’ because sometimes you can draw something up for a guy that maybe doesn’t want the basketball, and his exact words were, ‘I want the MF ball,’” Willard said. “So once he said that, it was an easy decision. And I could see everyone’s body position kind of perk up a little bit because he was so confident in that he wanted the basketball.”

Colorado State coach Niko Medved had no regrets about how his team performed in a losing effort.

“I thought we did just about everything right in this game,” he said. “It was an unbelievable college basketball game. Both teams going at it, trying to fight to go to the Sweet 16. These guys made a lot of plays. I thought we defended that last play pretty well. It’s about all we could ask for, and he made a freaking unbelievable shot.”

Unlike Friday’s 81-49 romp over No. 13 seed Grand Canyon in first-round action when Maryland dug out of an early 7-2 hole, the team labored in the first half against Colorado State. After assuming an 8-6 lead on Queen’s second 3-pointer in as many attempts just 2:35 into the opening frame, the Terps went 4:12 without a point.

That opened the door for the Rams to score eight straight points in a 3:24 span to take a 14-8 lead. Even after fifth-year senior small forward Jordan Geronimo ended Maryland’s drought with an emphatic alley-oop dunk, Colorado State ran off another eight points for a 22-10 advantage with 10:29 remaining.

A layup and jumper by Queen kicked off a 16-4 burst for the Terps, who capitalized on a 3:28 rut by the Rams. An offensive rebound and putback by Reese drew Maryland within 28-26 with 4:22 to go.

But the offense slipped into another drought — 3:07 this time — and Colorado State closed out the final 4:02 on a 9-4 spurt to enjoy a 37-30 lead at halftime.

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