No. 2 seed Maryland (25-7) handed a massive loss to No. 7 seed Illinois (21-12) for the second time this season, knocking the Illini out of the Big Ten tournament on Friday night, 88-65. It was an ugly outing for the Illini, who will now focus on the NCAA tournament.
“Whipped our butt in every facet,” said head coach Brad Underwood. “Our energy today was awful.”
Turnovers, aimless offense equal recipe for disaster
Turnovers were a massive issue for the Illini, making their already rough offensive outing even tougher to watch. Illinois turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, while Maryland did not turn it over once. The Illini couldn’t hold on to the ball, with the Terrapins knocking away passes and applying pressure in both the half-court and transition.
“We made some careless mistakes, some early turnovers,” said junior guard Kylan Boswell.“Definitely, we just didn’t make the right decisions as we normally do. All we can do right now is just watch the film on that, get back in the lab together and just fix it.”
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Illinois looked lost on the offensive end in the first half. The team passed up open midrange attempts, took bad three-pointers, dribbled around aimlessly, looked overly hesitant and couldn’t get past a tough Maryland defense. The offense didn’t have any structure.
The lack of offensive direction was worsened by the lack of execution on the opportunities the Illini had when they didn’t turn it over. Boswell missed all five of his three-point attempts, and Illinois went 3-14 as a team from long range in the opening 20 minutes. Shooting just 31.3% shows exactly how tough it was for Illinois to convert any of its looks from anywhere on the floor.
“I would agree we turned the ball over, and we didn’t shoot the shots we wanted; we didn’t create the shots we wanted,” said freshman guard Kasparas Jakučionis.
Maryland hot inside, out against low-energy defense
The first half was a masterclass from Maryland on the offensive end, as it thrived in the paint and beyond the arc. The Illini defense did not put up much of a fight, and the Terrapins took advantage of the early lack of energy, getting on a roll and not looking back.
“For me, I just feel like, hopefully, next time we step on the court, we just pick up all of our energy as a team,” Boswell said. “It was definitely flat.”
Sophomore guard Rodney Rice was on fire early, starting the game off 4-4 from three in just over six minutes of action, putting the Terrapins up by 12 early. He finished the first half with 18 points on 5-7 shooting from three.
“We let Rodney Rice cook us in the first half,” Underwood said. “I was really disappointed in our defense on the perimeter.”
Another stellar first-half performance came from junior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who had 12 points and five assists.
The 2025 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, center Derik Queen, was also in full force in the first half. He had nine points on 4-8 shooting and eight rebounds. Queen’s post-presence was massive. He wrestled rebounds away from Illinois’ bigs and converted multiple second-chance buckets.
Maryland attacked the rim aggressively, outscoring Illinois 20-12 in the paint and 15-8 on second-chance points in the first half. Sophomore center Tomislav Ivišić had issues handling Maryland’s aggressive offense, picking up three fouls in the first 11 minutes of the game. That relegated him to the bench for the rest of the first half.
Illini cannot dig themselves out of hole
Illinois faced a 26-point deficit heading into the second half, and as usual in these scenarios, it could not find a way to come back.
The final 20 minutes were much closer than the first, with the Illini winning the second half by three points. However, it was nowhere near enough, and the Terrapins’ final lead was still a large margin of 23.
Despite a competitive second half, the gameplay was mostly a sloppy continuation of the Illini’s first-half play throughout the final 20 minutes. However, freshman forward Will Riley was a bright spot. He had 12 second-half points on 5-9 shooting, but shooting 1-5 from the free-throw line wasn’t pretty.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the second half was the broadcast cameras spotting Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark taking in the action from a suite. Overall, the second half and the game as a whole didn’t provide much replay value, with Maryland firmly in control the entire way.
“We didn’t really do anything out of halftime,” said Maryland head coach Kevin Willard. “We were up 26, so I just told them not to mess it up. And they didn’t.”
Final notes
Maryland is the real deal. The Terrapins had five players in double figures, led by 26 points from Rice, a sharpshooter, and 19 from Queen, a dominant post presence. That balance of inside and out threats makes Maryland scary as it advances in the Big Ten tournament and, ultimately, the NCAA tournament.
“They’re good enough to win it,” Underwood said.
The Terrapins finishing with three turnovers and capitalizing on the Illini’s mistakes was also a huge factor in their success.
“That’s a great job by us,” Rice said. “We’ve got to do that moving forward, too.”
Maryland will move on to the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament, while Illinois will regroup and have a few days of rest and practice before the NCAA tournament. On Sunday, the NCAA tournament matchups and locations will be revealed. Illinois is currently projected to be a No. 6 seed.
“We’ll be fine,” Underwood said. “This is a good basketball team. We’ve proven that here in the last couple of weeks. It wasn’t our day today. Give Maryland all the props because they deserve them all. We’re going to show up next Thursday or Friday against whoever we have to play, and we’re going to compete awfully hard.”
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