Illinois Basketball Made Two Winning Plays to Close Out Maryland

Illinois Basketball Made Two Winning Plays to Close Out Maryland

Brad Underwood has crossed off his entire Big Ten road win list. Illinois Basketball finally found a way to beat the Maryland Terrapins and they found a way to do it on the road. Though Illinois has quite a solid record, fans have been wanting more from the Illini from a resume point of view. They have a handful of quad-one victories, however, they all seem to have the potential to fall down towards the second quadrant. As we speak, FAU is down 14 points to South Florida.

The effort last night was incredible. Whether this win remains a quad-one victory or not, Illinois Basketball can take solace in the fact that they pulled a close one out on the road. Two plays really stuck out for Illinois that helped them yank away the victory.

1) Marcus Domask goes Vertical, Harmon sees Hawkins for an and-one

Illinois Basketball was always able to respond when Maryland started to make a run. This was a stark contrast to the game in East Lansing vs Michigan State. In this play, it seemed that Coleman Hawkins had just tossed away the Illini’s chances at victory. However, Marcus Domask did an incredible job of staying vertical. This allowed Illinois to prevent Jahmir Young from grabbing an easy fast-break basket. In addition, Justin Harmon was awesome last night. Harmon hustled back to grab the rebound when the play seemed lost and had the vision to throw it back to Coleman quickly

2) Terrence Shannon Jr. Gets downhill in crunch time.

Illinois still shows some worrisome signs in tough games. When the going gets tough, they tend to rely too much on Isolation ball. This could be boom or bust. In East Lansing, this led to a gut-wrenching loss. However, Terrence’s basket here was absolutely huge. The Illini looked to be reeling and looked to be on the verge of another cold spell. However, Shannon Jr. found a way to get downhill without crashing into a crowd. This led to an and-one opportunity that Illinois fans will hope to see much more of in clutch time.

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