Maryland men’s basketball can vouch for the Midwest’s reputation for hospitality.

The Terps completed a successful two-game road swing through the heartland of the nation punctuated by Rodney Rice’s 3-pointer with seven seconds left in regulation to defeat host Indiana, 79-78, Sunday afternoon before an announced 17,222 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana.

Rice’s long-distance bomb from the left elbow capped a 9-3 run by the Terps that erased a 75-70 deficit with just over three minutes to go in the game. The sophomore shooting guard scored a game-high 23 points on 8 of 13 shooting, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range, to help the team end a three-game losing streak to the Hoosiers and a three-game skid at Assembly Hall.

Rice was complemented by junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who amassed 18 points, nine assists and three rebounds; graduate student small forward Selton Miguel, who compiled 15 points and two rebounds; and senior power forward Julian Reese, the Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate who notched his ninth double-double of the season on 14 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and two assists.

After losing in each of its first four road games, Maryland (16-5, 6-4 Big Ten) has now won two in a row after toppling No. 17 Illinois, 91-70, on Thursday. The team’s recent success stood in stark contrast to a two-game trip to the Pacific Northwest earlier this month when it labored to setbacks of 75-69 at Washington on Jan. 2 and 83-79 at then-No. 9 Oregon on Jan. 5.

“I just kept preaching to our guys that we’re a new group, everyone just keep staying positive, keep working the way we’ve been working,” coach Kevin Willard told CBS Sports after the game. “To come in here with this atmosphere, they played really well, and it just tells you that the guys are really learning and listening.”

Sophomore shooting guard Myles Rice and sophomore small forward Mackenzie Mgbako paced Indiana with 16 points each, Mgbako grabbed five rebounds and Rice dished out three assists. Senior center Oumar Ballo matched Reese’s double-double with one of his own on 14 points and 10 rebounds, and junior power forward Malik Reneau chipped in 10 points and six rebounds despite playing with four fouls, but they couldn’t help the Hoosiers (14-7, 5-5) avoid absorbing their fourth loss in the last five games.

Here are three observations from Sunday afternoon’s outcome.

Maryland’s perimeter players were masterful in the second half: Three days after the post duo of Reese and Derik Queen fueled the Terps’ upset of Illinois, the trio of Gillespie, Rice and Miguel demonstrated what they could do against Indiana.

That threesome was especially potent in the second half, scoring 34 of the team’s 41 points. Rice and Miguel both scored 13 points with Rice converting 5 of 6 shots and Miguel going 5 of 7, and both players went 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point line. Gillespie chipped in eight points, which included two 3-pointers.

Miguel and Rice carried significant portions of the load. Miguel scored eight consecutive points on a fastbreak layup and two 3-pointers in a 68-second stretch, and Rice followed with a jumper in the lane and a fastbreak layup in a 25-second span. After a timeout, Miguel and Rice drained back-to-back 3-pointers with Rice’s long-distance bomb giving Maryland its biggest lead of the game at 63-53 with 9:34 remaining.

And with the Terps trailing, 78-74, with 38 seconds to go, Gillespie nailed a jumper in the lane, and Rice splashed his game-winning 3-pointer to lift the team from what might have been a depressing result after Thursday’s victory.

Willard seemed to indicate that he anticipated such explosive outings by Rice, Gillespie and Miguel.

“Ja’Kobi, Rodney and Selton, those guys were like, ‘Hey, man, we’re going to start making shots,’” he said. “Just proud of the fact that they were so confident in each other to do it.”

The trio’s performance helped offset a somewhat quiet performance by freshman center Derik Queen, who finished with seven points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two blocks after collecting 25 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals against the Fighting Illini. Then again, the Baltimore resident didn’t need to do much with his teammates filling the void.

Maryland’s 3-point shooting is no longer a liability: The aforementioned threesome of Rice, Gillespie and Miguel accounted for all 12 of the Terps’ 3-pointers, which proved critical in the final score.

After the offense went 4 of 8 from long range in the first half, the unit erupted in the second half with Rice, Gillespie and Miguel nailing 8 of 14 3-pointers. To get an inkling of how devastating they were, Maryland shot 8 of 13 from inside the 3-point line.

The 12 3-pointers are tied for the second-highest total this season. They were the most since the Terps also made 12 in a 87-60 rout of Syracuse on Dec. 21.

Maryland’s prowess from behind the 3-point line continued at the expense of Indiana’s perimeter defense. The Hoosiers surrendered double-digit 3-pointers for the fourth time in their last five games.

Last winter, Maryland struggled mightily from distance, shooting 28.9% (201 of 696) and ranking 340th out of 351 teams at the Division I level. The team entered Sunday’s game at 35.8% (160 of 447) to rank 86th.

With that kind of improvement from the perimeter, the Terps should find themselves in position for more positive results than negative ones.

Maryland could use more contributions from its bench: If there is an area of concern, take a look at the Terps reserves. That group scored just two points on an alley-oop dunk by junior power forward Tafara Gapare against 16 points by Indiana’s bench.

The two points matched the same amount posted by Maryland’s reserves against Illinois. The group has compiled less than 10 points in four of the team’s last five games.

The starters played 179 of a possible 200 minutes — and deservedly so, according to Willard.

“We didn’t sub,” he said. “So those guys were feeling it. They wanted to be in there.”

Later, Willard told the Maryland Radio Network that timeouts for games that are nationally broadcast are longer than usual and influenced his decision to stick with the starters.

“I asked all the guys, ‘Do you guys want one [a breather]? Let me know,’ and they all said, ‘No, we want to roll this to the end,’” he said. “They made some plays, made some big stops.”

Since the schedule turned to Big Ten play on Jan. 2, the Terps bench has been outscored in all eight games. In fact, the reserves have yet to outscore a conference opponent this season.

That might not matter much considering how well the starting five has been performing. But if the bench doesn’t inspire much confidence in Willard to utilize it, that means more minutes for the starting five, which can have a cumulative effect on that group — and outside expectations of a deep run in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

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