Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Indianapolis, IN–
Coming into tonight’s game against Illinois, the Terps knew what they needed to do to continue to move on and Head Coach Kevin Willard told his team after the Northwestern game it was all business going into this tournament and judging by the performance of his team in a 91-70 pounding of the Illini tonight in Indy… this team is ready for Championship.
Rodney Rice got things going early in the first half and never really looked back after he hit four three pointers to give the Terps a comfortable 22-10 lead. Rice finished with 26 points tonight, his most since the second game of the season.
The Terps continued to roll after the Rice three’s and by the 10:24 mark in the first half they had a 29-10 lead. Maryland scored the final eight points of the half to take a 57-31 lead.
Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley each had 15 points for the Illini (21-12). Kylan Boswell had 14.
Maryland’s largest lead of the night came with 9:41 remaining when they were up by 36 points at 84-48.
Maryland finished the game shooting 47.8 percent from three-point range, a number that the Illini would like to forget and something they will have to work on as they await their seeding in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. Tonight’s loss has some thinking they may have lost a couple seeding options. The Terps on the other hand are pushing their way to the Championship on Sunday in what could be rematch against Michigan State providing both teams make after play on Saturday.
By the 6:00 minute mark Willard had the Crab 5 on the bench waiting for what should be an interesting match-up on Saturday,
The Terrapins (25-7) will face the winner of the late quarterfinal between Michigan and Purdue in the semifinals.
