Maryland Struggles With Momentum Swings in Loss to No. 11 Illinois, Prepares for Brutal Stretch Ahead
After finally breaking through with a conference win over Penn State, Maryland had a chance to build some momentum heading into the heart of Big Ten play. But that window quickly slammed shut in Champaign.
The Terrapins dropped their latest matchup against No. 11 Illinois, opening a daunting three-game stretch against top-10 opponents with a lopsided loss that once again highlighted their biggest issue: allowing massive scoring runs.
Maryland (8-11, 1-7 Big Ten) now heads to East Lansing to face No. 10 Michigan State on Jan.
- And the gauntlet doesn’t stop there.
A matchup with Purdue looms just a week later. That’s three straight games against top-10 teams, two of them on the road - a brutal stretch by any standard.
“I for sure don’t mean it to come across with any level of or hint of arrogance - I think real players and real coaches, that’s what they want to do,” said head coach Buzz Williams after the Illinois game. It’s a mindset that reflects a desire to embrace the challenge, but the Terrapins still have to find a way to stay in these games long enough to make that mentality matter.
The problem? Maryland continues to let games slip away in sudden, deflating bursts.
We’ve seen it before. Back on Jan. 10 against UCLA, the Terps gave up a 22-2 run that flipped a tight contest into a 17-point halftime hole.
The Bruins cruised from there. Against Illinois, it was déjà vu.
Maryland actually led 24-19 in the first half after a 7-0 run of their own. But then came the avalanche - a 25-4 Illinois run that buried the Terps by halftime.
A buzzer-beater three capped the Illini surge and sent Maryland into the break trailing 47-30.
That’s the kind of swing that takes the air out of a team - especially on the road, especially against a top-15 opponent.
To Maryland’s credit, there were some adjustments in the second half. “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 absolutely pummeled on the glass,” Williams noted. “And then 10 threes in the first half [by Illinois] versus five threes in the second half is distinctly different.”
But the damage was already done.
Illinois stretched the lead to as many as 27 points late in the game, going up 89-62 with two minutes left. Andrej Stojaković led the charge for the Illini, dropping 30 points - 16 of them in the first half when the game was slipping away from Maryland.
It’s not that Maryland can’t put together impressive stretches of its own. Just a few days earlier against Penn State, the Terps closed the first half on a 25-2 run that gave them a commanding 56-26 lead. But even in that win, they let the Nittany Lions claw back with a 25-6 run of their own, cutting the deficit to just 10 before Maryland finally steadied itself.
That’s the story of this team right now: capable of runs, but equally vulnerable to them. And in the Big Ten, where physicality and execution matter on every trip down the floor, that kind of inconsistency is tough to survive - especially against elite opponents.
As Williams put it, “It was a four- to six-point game only in the second half from start to finish in the second half. But in order to win these games, 40 minutes is required at a high execution level.”
That’s the challenge ahead. The Terrapins aren’t lacking effort or flashes of quality play.
But to compete in this conference - and especially in this brutal stretch of the schedule - they’ll need to tighten the screws for all 40 minutes. That means limiting the backbreaking runs, staying composed when the momentum shifts, and finding a way to string together stops when it matters most.
Because right now, the Big Ten isn’t waiting around for Maryland to figure it out.