Maryland men's basketball loses 89-70 at No. 11 Illinois

Maryland men’s basketball snapped back to reality.

Three days after gifting Buzz Williams with his first victory in the Big Ten in the coach’s debut season with the team, the Terps waere saddled with another conference setback, 89-70, against No. 11 Illinois Wednesday night before an announced 15,201 at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill.

Any momentum Maryland earned from Sunday’s 96-73 win against Penn State at Xfinity Center in College Park Md., dissipated in the first half against the Fighting Illini, who closed the stanza on a 25-4 run to turn a 26-22 deficit with 7:58 remaining into a 47-30 advantage at halftime.

After that, the Terps reverted to their familiar refrain of struggling to find their shots on offense, playing the role of matador on defense and failing to protect the ball to gain any semblance of rhythm on both ends of the court.

Redshirt freshman shooting guard Andre Mills led Maryland (8-11, 1-7 Big Ten) with 16 points (all in the second half). Graduate student point guard David Coit amassed 15 points, five assists and two rebounds, and senior small forward Solomon Washington chipped in 13 points and 10 rebounds, but the Terps dropped their fifth game in their past six and eighth in the past 10.

Junior shooting guard Andrej Stojakovic paced Illinois (16-3, 6-1) by scoring a game-high 30 points, grabbing nine rebounds, and blocking two shots. Freshman power forward David Mirkovic added 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists as the team showed little effect from the absence of senior point guard Kylan Boswell, who is not expected to return until mid-February after breaking his right hand Monday.

The Fighting Illini are off to their best start since the 2008-09 squad also opened with 16 wins in its first 19 games. Their 7-1 record in the Big Ten is their most successful since the 2004-05 team won its first 15 games in the league.

Illinois collected its eighth consecutive victory — its first such streak since winning eight in a row from Feb. 25 to March 19, 2021. It is their longest run under coach Brad Underwood.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s contest:

Fighting Illini’s size unsettles Maryland

The Terps have faced their share of large opponents, but nothing like what they saw Wednesday.

Illinois boasts the tallest roster in the nation by averaging 79.5 inches in height, according to the team’s game notes. That measurement made life difficult for the Terps.

Maryland went the first 10:13 without an offensive rebound and managed just five offensive boards for the game. That led to only eight second-chance points.

Meanwhile, the Fighting Illini pulled down 15 offensive rebounds and converted them into 20 second-chance points. The 6-foot-7, 215-pound Stojakovic (the son of former NBA player Peja Stojakovic), 7-1, 255-pound junior center Tomislav Ivisic and 6-6, 215-pound junior small forward Jake Davis collected three offensive boards each.

The Terps were outrebounded, 47-31, and seemed to be wary of driving into the lane. Although they outscored Illinois, 26-24, in the paint, they took almost half of their shots from 3-point range, which probably isn’t the ideal strategy for an offense that entered the game tied for 14th in the 18-team Big Ten in 3-point efficiency (32.8%).

Williams noted that Illinois complements its size with talent.

“The size is daunting, but the size is daunting before the ball is shot, and the size is daunting after the ball is shot,” he told the Maryland Sports Radio Network. “And regardless of their size, their skill allows them to play all over the floor. And so that’s why we were doing some things that we haven’t done up until tonight this season – trying to negate not necessarily their size, but to try to influence better than we did, trying to influence the type of shot and position ourselves to give us a better chance on the offensive of glass.”

Coit cools off — and doesn't get much help from his teammates

Expecting Coit — who scored 30 points in an 88-71 setback at USC on Jan. 13 and 43 against Penn State — to maintain his torrid shooting ways seemed like folly. And Illinois did its best to limit Maryland’s most explosive option on offense.

The Fighting Illini tasked Stojakovic with shadowing the 5-11, 180-pound Coit, who gave up eight inches and 35 pounds in the matchup. Coit didn’t fare poorly, but he made just 5 of 15 shots from the field, including 1 of 8 from long distance.

Underwood singled out Stojakovic for praise and expressed his belief that Stojakovic’s intensity on defense fueled his opportunities on offense.

“Andrej Stojakovic, defensively accepting the challenge of a guy who had 43 in his last game, it’s amazing how when you worry about the defensive side, your offense will find you,” he told the Big Ten Network. “He was terrific, he was fabulous.”

While the Terps clearly need Coit to find his touch if they have any chance of winning, it would be nice if his teammates also contributed. Starting shooting guard Isaiah Watts, a junior, did not score a point and missed the two shots he attempted from 3-point range, and starting small forward George Turkson Jr., a redshirt freshman, did not put up a single stat except getting whistled for one personal foul.

Starting shooting guard Darius Adams, a freshman, and starting power forward Elijah Saunders, a senior, scored eight and six points, respectively. But Maryland must find ways to cultivate scoring from sources other than Coit or risk opposing defenses paying more-than-the-usual amount of attention on Coit.

The Terps get a taste of some of their own medicine

In Sunday’s victory, Maryland connected on a single-game record 18 3-pointers. On Wednesday, the team experienced life on the other end.

Illinois torched the nets with 15 bombs from long distance on 40 shots. Stojakovic, who entered the game with 11 3-pointers this season, nailed four, and Davis, who replaced Boswell in the starting lineup, matched Stojakovic with four of his own.

The Fighting Illini’s 15 3-pointers were the second most surrendered by the Terps, trailing only the 17 that Mount St. Mary’s dropped in 95-90 overtime win for Maryland on Nov. 19.

Williams briefly touched on Illinois’ shooting prowess.

“I thought we did a lot of good things. But you have to be even better than good to win at No. [11] Illinois,” he said. “We were better in the second half in regards to our turnover rate. We were better in the second half in regards to not getting just absolutely pummeled on the glass. And then 10 3’s in the first half versus five 3’s in the second half is distinctly different. So again, spurts where we were good, the first 10 minutes. … But in order to win these games, as you know, 40 minutes is required at a high execution level.”

Perimeter defense has not exactly been an area of strength for Maryland. The team entered the game ranked 16th in the Big Ten in 3-point defense, allowing opponents to convert 36.4% of their long-distance attempts. Only Rutgers (36.7%) and Penn State (37.4%) have been more generous.

Retooling that aspect of the defense — before Saturday’s road game against No. 10 Michigan State, which ranks seventh in the conference in 3-point percentage (.353) — might be a wise move if the Terps wish to pull off an upset.

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