SEATTLE — In case you didn’t know, Derik Queen is from Baltimore.

The 6-foot-10, 245-pound freshman for Maryland men’s basketball made that clear twice after banking home the game-winning fadeaway jumper at the buzzer that propelled the No. 4 seed Terps to a 72-71 victory over No. 12 seed Colorado State on Sunday in an NCAA Tournament second-round game at Climate Pledge Arena.

When asked what gave him the confidence to attempt the shot that some of his older, more veteran teammates did not undertake, Queen replied, “I’m from Baltimore. That’s why.”

During a later news conference, the 20-year-old Queen mentioned his hometown again when asked whether a moment like Sunday night’s was the reason he chose to attend Maryland rather than Houston, Kansas and Indiana, which vied for his services.

“Yeah, of course,” the center said. “I mean, first of all, I just want to put out for Baltimore. A lot of people don’t really make it out of Baltimore, and then I just wanted to come here and make a change. And hopefully I did make a change, so Coach [Kevin] Willard can keep getting a lot of local kids.”

Queen’s heroics were replayed and reviewed frequently Sunday night. CBSSports.com wondered whether his game-winner belonged among the top-10 shots in NCAA Tournament history. (Ultimately, the final decision was no. “The reality is that the competition is stiff,” David Cobb wrote.)

Queen’s bucket certainly ranks among the best in Terps history. The contenders include but are not limited to:

— March 2, 1995: Sophomore center Joe Smith’s tip-in before the final horn cemented a 40-point performance and a 94-92 win at archrival Duke despite the absence of coach Gary Williams (pneumonia), who was replaced by assistant coach Billy Hahn.

— March 21, 2003: Senior shooting guard Drew Nicholas nailed a leaning 24-foot 3-pointer and then continued running down a tunnel inside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., after completing a 75-73 victory over UNCW in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

— Feb. 20, 2010: Senior shooting guard Cliff Tucker drained a 25-foot 3-pointer to forge a 76-74 win against Georgia Tech that contributed to a run to the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title.

— March 4, 2017: Junior point guard Melo Trimble connected on a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to seal a 63-60 victory over Michigan State that clinched a second-place finish in the Big Ten and a double bye in the conference tournament.

Recency bias might send Queen to the top of the list, but among those candidates, only Smith and Queen were their respective conference’s Rookies of the Year, and Queen is projected to join Smith as a first-round pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

Willard said he decided to draw up the game-winning play for his star freshman for two reasons. The first was because it was one he had designed for Isaiah Whitehead when the two were at Seton Hall during the 2015-16 season and Queen had scored twice on the same play earlier this year.

And the second?

“He was very enthusiastic about wanting the basketball,” Willard said. “And again, I know he’s only a freshman, I know this is a big stage, but [sophomore shooting guard] Rodney [Rice has] never been in the NCAA Tournament, [junior point guard] Ja’Kobi [Gillespie has] never been in the NCAA Tournament. Hard to run a play at the end of the game for a 6-11 center like [senior Julian Reese]. So when he said he wanted the basketball, it just made it pretty simple.”

Queen said his mindset approaching the play was just as plain. “I’ve got to get fouled or go out there and make a shot,” he said.

It was hard to find fault in the defense played by Colorado State graduate student shooting guard Ethan Morton, who guarded Queen as well as he could without fouling. Because the difference in the score was only one point, Rams coach Niko Medved said his players had to beware of any attempts inside and outside the 3-point line.

“They ran through, they just ripped, and he just caught it and put his head down on an iso,” he said. “Again, I thought we extended the catch outside the 3. He caught it and drove it, he was driving left, I thought we angled him off, forced him going left off the wrong foot, step back from whatever it was, made it. It’s a heck of a shot. I don’t really know what else you do to defend that. Hindsight’s 20/20. If you knew exactly what it was going to be, we would have done something. But again, I had no beef how we defended that. He just made a great shot.”

Queen continues to climb the program’s record book for freshmen. His 16.2-point average ranks second among Maryland freshmen to only Smith’s 19.4 average in 1994. Queen needs just two more points to pass Trimble’s 568 in 2015 for second in that department and five more rebounds to eclipse Smith’s 322 for second in that category.

Queen’s contributions to Maryland go beyond the court. Rice said Queen’s fun-loving nature has forced him and his teammates to reassess how they view the sport.

“I think we need that,” Rice said. “I’ll speak for myself, but I get so locked into the game, I need to relax a little bit. Having him in the locker room, I’m not so tense. So yeah, I appreciate that from him.”

Willard pointed out that Queen has inherited a positivity and joy for life from his mother Lisa Anderson. He said Queen’s personality is infectious.

“He just has such a great energy about him that when you’re around him, you’re going to smile, you’re going to laugh, you’re going to hug him,” he said. “His teammates are the same way. Not too many people in this world have positive energy anymore and he’s so fun to be around because he’s always positive. So when he said that he wanted the ball and the way he said it, I knew something good was going to happen because good things happen to great people and he is a great, great person.”

Greatness will continue to be a pursuit for Queen, especially if — “when” might be more accurate at this point — he decides to leave school early (as expected) for the NBA. But for at least one night, Queen has written himself into Terps lore.

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