Maryland basketball closes worst regular season in decades with loss to Illinois

Edward Lee, The Baltimore Sun on Mar 8, 2026

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland men’s basketball put forth one of its better efforts of the season, but it still wasn’t good enough to topple a top-15 opponent.

The Terps went toe-to-toe with No. 11 Illinois for the first half, but the Fighting Illini’s size and offensive prowess proved too much for Maryland, which succumbed to a 78-72 setback in the regular-season finale for both sides Sunday afternoon before an announced 15,674 at Xfinity Center.

The loss was the fourth in a row and sixth in the past seven games for the Terps (11-20, 4-16 Big Ten), who absorbed the program’s third 20-loss campaign in school history. The 1988-89 squad went 9-20, and the 1940-41 team owns the dubious record for most defeats in a season, courtesy of a 1-21 record.

A victory would not have rescued Maryland from the indignity of being one of the four worst teams in the conference, which are forced to play on Tuesday in the first round of the league’s upcoming tournament at the United Center in Chicago. But it would have been nice for the No. 17 seed to gain a little momentum heading into that game against No. 16 seed Oregon (12-19, 5-15).

“This one hurts, for sure,” said redshirt freshman shooting guard Andre Mills, who scored a game-high 30 points for his second 30-point showing of the season but missed a 3-pointer when the team trailed by four in the final minute. “But I definitely say that, unlike any other game, I think that our fight, our execution to the game plan was probably the best we’ve had all year. I’d just say down the stretch, that minute, we’ve got to execute what we need to execute [and] come through.”

The Terps, who have fielded an undersized lineup with 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior power forward Pharrel Payne missing the last 20 games because of a right knee injury, were pushed around by Illinois, which boasted a starting frontcourt consisting of 7-1, 255-pound junior center Tomislav Ivisic and 6-9, 250-pound freshman power forward David Mirkovic. Junior center Zvonmir Ivisic (7-2, 250 pounds) is also in the mix.

While the Fighting Illini (24-7, 15-5) finished with a slight 33-30 edge in rebounds over Maryland, they grabbed 12 offensive boards. They converted those into 19 second-chance points compared with just six second-chance points for the Terps.

Illinois’ height also proved useful in the lane. It outscored Maryland, 42-20, in the paint — a dramatic departure from the Fighting Illini’s 89-70 rout on Jan. 21 when the Terps owned a 26-24 edge in that category.

“They shoot high-value shots at any point in the clock,” coach Buzz Williams said. “They rebound any of those misses higher than any team in the league, and when they get the ball back, they shoot another high-value shot. And so [that is] the thing that we struggled with there.”

Mirkovic scored 12 of his team-high 22 points on six layups, Zvonmir scored six of his eight points on dunks, and Tomislav added a layup among his four points. Fighting Illini coach Brad Underwood said leaning on them was part of the team’s offensive strategy.

“We won the battle of the paint, 42-20, and we figured that coming in,” he said. “That was the game plan, and we got good looks.”

Despite that challenge, Maryland kept pace with Illinois for much of the contest. The Fighting Illini’s biggest lead of the first half was a 5-0 opening before the teams traded leads four times.

Illinois built a 51-45 lead early in the second half, but could not gain more of a separation because the Terps answered with six straight points. The Fighting Illini added their own 6-0 burst before Maryland matched with another 6-0 spurt.

Illinois then used a 9-2 run to assume a 72-64 advantage with 3:56 left in the second half. The Terps scored six consecutive points to get within two, but Mirkovic banked in a layup to give the Fighting Illini a two-possession cushion in the final minute. Maryland redshirt freshman Andre Mills missed a 3-pointer, and Illinois made four of six free throws to cement the outcome.

Along with his sixth straight double-digit outing, Mills produced four rebounds and three assists. Freshman shooting guard Darius Adams came off the bench to punch in 14 points and three rebounds, and graduate student point guard David Coit made his first start since Feb. 1 against Purdue and chipped in 10 points and three assists.

In addition to sparking the Fighting Illini in scoring, Mirkovic totaled 11 rebounds (four on the offensive glass) and three assists. Senior point guard Kylan Boswell compiled 11 points and three assists, and freshman shooting guard Keaton Wagler, the team’s leading scorer entering the game at 18.1 points, scored all 11 of his points in the second half and finished with three rebounds, three assists and three steals as Illinois secured a triple bye to Friday’s Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.

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