As much trouble as Maryland men’s basketball has had away from College Park, the program has found a home away from home in Champaign, Illinois.
For the sixth time in their past seven trips to the State Farm Center, the Terps emerged victorious, defeating the Fighting Illini, 91-70, on Thursday night before an announced 15,544.
The 21-point gap is the largest margin of victory at Illinois since Penn State cruised to a 74-52 romp on Feb. 11, 2018. And the 91 points are Maryland’s most in a road win over a ranked opponent since a 91-87 victory over No. 8 Virginia on Jan. 31, 2002 — the same season the Terps won the national championship.
Maryland (15-5, 5-4 Big Ten) picked up its first victory on the road since Feb. 25, 2024, when that squad walloped Rutgers, 63-46, in Piscataway, New Jersey. The team improved to 5-20 in the conference on the road and 7-21 overall since Kevin Willard became coach before the start of the 2022-23 season.
But Willard didn’t gloat about his team’s overwhelming performance.
“I just kept telling them, ‘Hey, guys, we’re close,’” he told FS1, which aired the game. “We’ve been knocking on the door. Every road game, we’ve been up, we’ve had chances. So part of it is just keeping them positive and keeping them to understand, ‘Hey, this is a tough league to win on the road. Just keep knocking on the door, and we were going to break it down.’”
The Terps, who earned their fourth victory in the past five games, were fueled largely by senior power forward Julian Reese’s eighth double-double of the season on game highs in points (27), rebounds (17) and blocks (three) and freshman center Derik Queen’s 25 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals. They became the first Terps duo to score at least 25 points in the same game since Feb. 20, 2011, when Jordan Williams scored 26 and Terrell Stoglin scored 25 in an 87-80 win against North Carolina State.
Reese told Maryland play-by-play announcer Johnny Holliday that the team’s previous disappointment fueled them.
“We kind of used that motivation at halftime, just looking back and not getting complacent and just standing on this lead and keep building on it,” he said. “We saw guys on the other team get down on themselves and look kind of defeated. We just tried to pounce on them and just tried to take advantage of that.”
Junior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie chipped in 15 points, eight assists, three rebounds and three steals, and graduate student small forward Selton Miguel added 14 points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals.
Freshman point guard Kasparas Jakučionis paced Illinois with 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, sophomore shooting guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn came off the bench to accumulate 15 points and four rebounds, and junior shooting guard Kylan Boswell had 14 points and nine rebounds. But the Fighting Illini (13-6, 5-4) suffered their second consecutive loss and third in the past four games and slid to 8-3 at home.
Here are three observations from Thursday night’s outcome.
Maryland used its advantage in size early and often
Illinois was forced to play without 7-foot-1, 255-pound sophomore center Tomislav Ivišić, who was sick with the flu. The Fighting Illini’s loss was the Terps’ gain.
Without Ivišić to patrol the lane and despite Illinois inserting 6-9, 255-pound freshman power forward Morez Johnson Jr. into the starting lineup, Maryland’s post pair of Reese and Queen prospered to the tune of 52 points, their most in a game this season. The 6-9, 252-pound Reese scored 14 points and collected nine rebounds in the first half, while the 6-10, 246-pound Queen scored 13 points in the opening period.
Reese, a Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate who eclipsed previous career bests of 24 points and 16 rebounds, and Queen, a Baltimore resident, propelled the Terps to outscore the Fighting Illini in the paint, 62-34. The total number of points in the lane were the most in a Big Ten game this season and by the program since Nov. 5, 2019, when that squad scored 64 in a 95-71 thrashing of Holy Cross.
Reese told Holliday that he and Queen can overpower opponents.
“I feel like when we have games like that when me and him are in double figures, it’s hard for us to lose, especially when we’re attacking the boards like we did today against another good rebounding team in Illinois,” he said. “We just keep doing it how we do it.”
Twelve of Maryland’s 18 buckets in the first half were layups, which helped offset a 0-for-3 showing from 3-point range. Willard didn’t envy Illinois coach Brad Underwood’s predicament against Maryland’s big men.
“Brad had to go small, and you just can’t go small against us,” he said. “We just said, ‘Keep throwing it inside, keep knocking it inside,’ and I thought Julian and Derik were really aggressive and understood they had small guys on them and were just aggressive.”
In Sunday’s 69-66 win against Nebraska, Reese and Queen combined for only 11 points, marking their second game this winter with fewer than 20 in a single game. They demonstrated a much more aggressive approach Thursday, which was a welcomed development.
Freshman vs. freshman tilted in Maryland’s favor
Thursday’s game was widely anticipated because it marked the first meeting between a pair of precocious rookies. Queen entered the game averaging 15.1 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists, and Jakučionis had averaged 15.9 points, 5.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds.
Queen earned bragging rights for now with his powerful outing, particularly in the lane. He had scored fewer than 10 points in four of his previous six starts.
Jakučionis did not play poorly, compiling a diversified stat line that punctuated the versatility the Lithuania native brings to the Big Ten. But he missed 9 of 14 shots — including all four attempts from behind the 3-point line — and committed a game-high seven turnovers while being guarded primarily by Gillespie.
Willard said Gillespie used the matchup against Jakučionis as motivation.
“I think he took the point guard matchup to heart,” Willard told FS1. “He’s been playing great all year. He’s had one bad game all year. He didn’t play very good at Washington. The rest of the time, he’s been the most reliable guy that we’ve had.”
Both Queen and Jakučionis have been projected as first-round picks in the 2025 NBA draft. Thursday’s efforts likely won’t alter too greatly how NBA executives and scouts view their potential.
Maryland flexed its ability to convert turnovers into points again
Illinois was not terribly careless with the ball, but that didn’t stop the Terps from capitalizing on the few mistakes the Fighting Illini made.
Illinois turned the ball over 16 times, which exceeded the team’s season average of 11.5. Maryland pounced, scoring 27 points off those turnovers, which is the highest total surrendered by the Fighting Illini this season.
On the flip side, the Terps gave the ball away only seven times, and Illinois could only gain four points from those errors.
According to the broadcast crew on FS1, Maryland entered the game scoring 20 points off turnovers per game. The team further burnished that reputation with its performance Thursday.
Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.
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