'They outfought us, out-toughed us and deserved to win': Maryland Pulls Off Stunning Upset Over No. 12 Illini
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Maryland, the same team that lost by 22 points to Iowa on its home floor three days earlier, left with a stunning upset win on the Illini home court.
Darryl Morsell scored 19 points, Donta Scott added 16 and Maryland upset No. 12 Illinois 66-63 Sunday in what is easily the worst loss for the Illini (9-4, 5-2 in Big Ten) in this 2020-21 season. Maryland (7-6, 2-6) can now boast about having road wins at Illinois and at Wisconsin as its only pair of conference victories this season.
“We were just as bad yesterday in practice as everybody saw today in finishing (shots at the rim) and so I’ve got to re-examine what we’re doing in practice,” Underwood said. ”I don’t want to take anything away from what Maryland did to us tonight. They outfought us, out-toughed us and deserved to win the game.”
After the win, Morsell took to Twitter by posting a short video to social media expressing his excitement about leaving State Farm Center in Champaign with an undefeated 3-0 record as the Terrapins have now won four straight in Illinois’ home arena.
Hakim Hart hit a 3-pointer with four minutes and eight seconds left to give the Terrapins a 62-61 lead, which Maryland didn’t relinquish. The Hart jumper was only the third Maryland basket in a eight minute stretch that saw the Illini score just seven total points as well.
Ayo Dosunmu scored 23 points for Illinois but needed 23 shots to get to that total. The preseason All-America candidate missed four of 11 layups by the home team.
“We didn’t make a lot of plays and late game, we didn’t make a lot of winning plays,” Dosunmu said. “We had chances. We missed free throws down the stretch. We gave up rebounds for kick-out threes. I just think we didn’t play well enough down the stretch to win this game.”
Kofi Cockburn added another double-double effort of 21 points and 10 rebounds. However, the 7-foot center didn’t have a shot attempt for the final eight minutes of action against the much-smaller Maryland squad.
“They were doubling but we definitely should’ve done a better job of getting him more looks because he was 8 of 10 from the field, very efficient and he was 5 of 6 on his free throws,” Dosunmu said. “If he got it and got a shot up, it was a great shot attempt. We definitely need to try and get him more shots.”
To add to the embarrassment for a loss against a team that was nearly a double-digit underdog was Maryland played without one of its leading scorers in point guard Eric Ayala (14 points per game) due to a groin injury.
Illinois senior guard Trent Frazier suffered an injury to his left shoulder late in the first half and was in obvious pain as he retreated to the locker room area but returned in the second half before being quickly pulled. Frazier, who was held scoreless in 23 minutes, will be further evaluated and Underwood said in his post-game media conference that the staff would know more about the severity of the injury on Monday.
Illinois will try to avoid its first losing streak of the 2020-21 season by traveling to Nebraska for a 8 p.m. tip on Wednesday night. Nebraska (4-8, 0-5) has lost its last seven games to Division I competition and hasn’t held its last four Big Ten Conference opponents under 80 points.
