INDIANAPOLIS — If there was one glitch in Maryland freshman center Derik Queen’s NBA profile, it might have been a consistent ability — maybe even proclivity — to make shots from the perimeter.

The Baltimore resident might have answered that question with his game-high 31-point performance in the No. 2 seed Terps’ 81-80 loss to third-seeded Michigan in Saturday evening’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Queen, the conference’s Freshman of the Year and first-team selection, drained 2 of 4 3-pointers — doubling his season total — and connected on a few more long twos. He scored the most points by a Maryland freshman in a league tournament game since 2008 and registered his 11th 20-point game of the season, which is the most by a Terps rookie since Joe Smith had 15 during the 1993-94 campaign.

The 6-foot-10, 245-pound Queen, who is projected to be chosen in the mid-to-late first round of the upcoming NBA draft, didn’t seem too surprised by his long-distance accuracy.

“I work on it every day,” he said. “I just don’t shoot it a lot in a game. Shoot one or two a game. Haven’t been making them, but they left me open a lot of times, and I just made them.”

Here are three observations from Saturday’s loss:

One of Maryland’s strengths was exposed by Michigan: Entering Saturday’s game, the Terps (25-8) were tied for second in the Big Ten in rebounding margin at plus-4.2 per game. Who were they tied with? The Wolverines.

Michigan (24-9) flexed its muscles by outrebounding Maryland by a whopping 47-18 difference. Junior power forward Danny Wolf grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, and graduate student center Vladislav Goldin collected 10.

One could point out that the Wolverines turned the ball over 19 times, which limited the Terps’ numbers on the glass. But that doesn’t fully explain how Michigan finished with 18 offensive rebounds, which it turned into 18 second-chance points.

Senior power forward Julian Reese credited the Wolverines with being more aggressive when the ball came off the rim or backboard.

“It was just them doing it better than us,” said the 6-9, 230-pound Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate who has five or fewer rebounds in three of his past four games. “There wasn’t really any secret to it. It was just them attacking the boards better than us.”

Rather than place blame on Reese or Queen (three rebounds for his lowest total since a one-rebound effort in a 75-69 loss at Washington on Jan. 2), Terps coach Kevin Willard noted that graduate student small forward Selton Miguel and sophomore shooting guard Rodney Rice grabbed only one rebound each.

“Obviously, their size is different, but our guards have to do a much better job of helping rebound,” he said. “That’s one thing that has been a little bit of a weakness of ours. Two of our starters have one rebound each. Sometimes when you play against bigger teams, you need your guards to go in there and dig them out. I think that’s the biggest challenge with them.”

A loss by any margin is still a loss: No one can accuse Maryland of getting blown out.

Of the team’s eight defeats, none have been by a margin greater than six points, and five have been one-possession scores. The Terps have dropped the eight games by an average of 3.5 points.

The last four losses have been particularly distressing. Maryland fell, 76-74 in overtime, at Northwestern on Jan. 16 on junior power forward Nick Martinelli’s mid-range jumper as time expired, 73-70 at Ohio State on Feb. 6 on junior point guard Bruce Thornton’s banked 3-pointer, 58-55 against Michigan State on Feb. 26 on junior shooting guard Tre Holloman’s half-court 3-pointer just before the final horn, and now Saturday on junior point guard Tre Donaldson’s left-handed layup with 0.4 seconds remaining.

Miguel said the team has to avoid opening the door for opponents to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

“We’ve got to learn from the get-go, from the start not to depend on the last shot,” he said. “We keep learning, and it’s sports. Things happen, but you learn after every game.”

While Reese said the past four setbacks suggest the Terps are closer to being 29-4 than 25-8, junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said the harrowing nature of those losses is tough to stomach.

“I think it makes it more difficult because they’re hitting the shot, and we don’t get a chance to try to win the game,” he said. “So I feel like that’s the worst way you can lose.”

Can the Big Ten Tournament be a springboard for the NCAA version?: Asked if losing Saturday instead of playing Sunday might benefit Maryland in terms of an extra day of rest before diving into the NCAA Tournament, Willard said he’d rather be playing.

At least the Terps didn’t have to sit on pins and needles wondering if their resume was strong enough to warrant an invitation to the postseason. Their accomplishments this season earned them a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Willard pointed out that Maryland has bounced back quickly and emphatically after six of its seven losses, winning those games by an average of 26.5 points. He said enduring the rigors of the Big Ten regular season and tournament should benefit the team.

“The greatest thing about this league is, there’s so many different styles,” he said. “[Wolverines coach] Dusty [May] switches a lot 1 through 4, and you have the traditional with [Michigan State] coach [Tom] Izzo who’s very traditional with hedging and being physical. And you have teams that play fast like Iowa, and you have some teams that play really slow like Minnesota. So whoever we play on Thursday and Friday, we’re going to have seen that style, and I think that’s what’s really unique about this conference. It makes you adjust as a coach, and it makes you get better as a coach because you see so many different styles. It’s not just the same basketball night in and night out.”

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