No. 20 Illinois basketball dropped its first home game in over two months on Friday night as No. 9 Maryland came to State Farm Center and took sole possession of first place in the Big Ten. The Terrapins beat the Illini 75-66 and completed the sweep – the Illini fell to the Terrapins at College Park on Dec. 7.

The Illini started the game electric and built up a 13-point lead in the first five minutes. After holding a double-digit advantage through the majority of the next 10 minutes, the Illini slowly broke themselves down.

Maryland installed a zone defense and added some full-court pressure near the end of the half and went on an 8-2 run to take a 44-42 lead just before halftime.

“The one thing we haven’t done a very good job of is throw the ball into the interior,” said head coach Brad Underwood.” Part of that first half, we didn’t have Giorgi, we didn’t have Kofi for a lot of that. Kip missed a couple in there. We ran a few sets and turned down a couple we shouldn’t have. We didn’t have Trent in there. I think that was more of the problem tonight than anything else, was just lineups.”

Illinois continued to struggle against the Maryland defense and started the second half just 1-of-15 from the field, causing a plus-six-minute scoring drought. The Illini shot just 25.9% in the second half while the Terrapins shot 36.4%.

Fundamentals started to fall apart for the Illini in the second half – they had eight turnovers but only forced four and missed five free throws and eight layups. Illinois missed five free throws in the first half as well.

“You can’t miss 10 free throws,” Underwood said. “You get to the foul line 24 times against Maryland who’s one of the top teams in the country, in terms of margin at the foul line. You can’t miss free throws against the (ninth) ranked team in the country and beat them, whether you’re home or on the road…. It’s a turnover when you miss two it’s like a turnover. Those are momentum plays, those are huge swings in momentum.”

Foul trouble also frustrated the Illini – freshman Kofi Cockburn had four fouls while junior Trent Frazier and sophomore Giorgi Bezhanishvilli had three.

Frazier’s first two fouls came within the first eight minutes of the game, causing him to set the rest of the first half. Frazier scored just five points in the loss but came into the matchup averaging 13.8 points in the last five games.

Maryland junior Darryl Morsell fueled the Terrapins in the second half with 10 points, including two three-pointers. Senior Anthony Cowan Jr., Maryland’s top-scorer, led all scorers with 20 points. Sophomore Jalen Smith recorded his sixth-straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Sophomore Ayo Dosunmu led the Illini with 16 points. Senior Andrés Feliz was the only other Illini in double figures, accounting for 12 of the Illini’s 27 bench points.

“We’ve got to play better,” Underwood said. “You’ve got to be able to rise your emotional level to a point that you’re able to perform. We’ll bounce back. This team was great in February last year. We’re a game out of first and we’re still playing for a championship. This game doesn’t define anything and we’ve got eight games to go.”

Illinois will get a chance at redemption on Tuesday when it hosts No.16 Michigan State. The Illini and the Spartans are currently tied for second place in the Big Ten.

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