Prior to Tuesday night, the Illinois basketball team’s hectic schedule had served its purpose: Get an inexperienced team plenty of early-game action. Although the Illini survived that stretch, the lack of rest caught up to them as they ran into a tougher challenge against No. 23 Maryland.

With injuries still troubling key players, Illinois’ inexperience reared its ugly head Tuesday as it fell to Maryland 72-66 in front of a sell-out crowd at the Assembly Hall in the eighth annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Not only did Illinois suffer its first loss, but its 51-game non-conference home-winning streak came to an end.

“We shouldn’t lose at home,” head coach Bruce Weber said. “I don’t care who’s here or not. We gave up 72 percent (field goal shooting) in the second half. We’ve been pretty good; I understand the competition is different, but that shouldn’t happen at home.”

In its usual fashion, Illinois (7-1) got off to a slow start, falling behind 20-6 with 12:55 remaining in the half. But instead of clawing its way back as it had countless times before, Illinois fell victim to its own quick shots and Maryland’s full-court press and inside presence.

After trailing for all but the first 90 seconds of the first half – and by as many as 15 points at one time – the Illini built a 48-43 lead with 8:54 to play. The Illini, though, just couldn’t put the game away, bothered down the stretch by the play of freshman center Greivis Vasquez, who contributed 17 points.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” said senior forward Warren Carter, who added 13 points – all in the first half – and 11 rebounds. “We definitely had our opportunities. We came out slow, yet again, but we fought our way back. (We) tried to extend the lead a little bit; I think we just thought it was going to come, but they just out-toughed us.”

Junior forward Shaun Pruitt led the Illini with 18 points (7-of-12 shooting) and added 11 rebounds, while sophomore forward Calvin Brock added 11 points and four rebounds. Maryland (8-0), playing without forward Ekene Ibekwe, was led by Mike Jones’ game-high 19 points (7-of-11 shooting, 4-of-5 from beyond the arc).

Despite leading the Illini in scoring, Pruitt put much of the blame on himself.

“I thought we had the game, but we didn’t keep our poise and a lot of that is my fault,” Pruitt said. “I took the ball out when I wasn’t supposed to and it led to a turnover, and we had some other turnovers and it seemed like it went downhill from there. That’s our fault, and we just have to accept it.”

Trailing 30-16, the Illini started to chip away at the Terrapins’ lead after a Pruitt three-point play with 6:26 remaining to cut the lead to 30-19.

Carter added a three-pointer and a jumper to bring the Illini within six before freshman center Brian Carlwell scored the Illini’s final four points of the half – off a lay-up and two free throws – to cut Maryland’s lead to 33-28 at the half.

During the first 20 minutes of play, Illinois shot just 9.1 percent (1-of-11 shooting) from beyond the arc, compared to Maryland’s 60 percent on 3-of-5 shooting. Illinois also owned a 26-22 advantage on the glass, behind Carter’s 10 first-half rebounds.

The Illini’s defensive energy also held Maryland leading scorer D.J. Strawberry (16.0 points per game) to two first half-points. He finished the game with seven points and three rebounds.

Just as Vasquez’s play gave the Terrapins an added lift, so too did Carter’s first-half play. His lack of aggressiveness in the second half limited Illinois’ inside scoring.

“Honestly, I just stopped being aggressive,” Carter said. “I didn’t attack as much as I was; I didn’t look to shoot as much as I did in the first half. I don’t know what it was, but I just didn’t do it.”

The Illinois offense was bothered by Maryland’s press most of the game.

The Illini guards were a combined 5-for-30 from the field, much to Weber’s dismay.

As Illinois heads to Phoenix for a match-up with No. 16 Arizona on Saturday, Weber hopes the Illini can turn things around before then.

“I still think we’ll be pretty good, but we can’t wait,” Weber said. “We get too many losses early, I don’t know if you can recover, just like we get in games.”