Better three-point shooting, fewer turnovers and a win.
Maryland proved it could do those things in a 72-51 win over Lehigh on Friday, but now the Terrapins must show they can do them against a good team: Illinois.
The Terrapins ended a two-game slide in which they soundly were defeated by second-ranked UCLA and Missouri by an average of 13 points by defeating the visiting Mountain Hawks (2-3). But they likely will have to play even better against Illinois (4-1) on Wednesday night at 7:30 at Comcast Center to beat the Illini in the Big 10/ACC Challenge in front of a national television audience on ESPN2.
“It was good, the way we tried to play. I can live with 12 [turnovers],” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “Now we have to do it against Illinois. We have to handle the ball against Illinois.”
After a 3-0 start, Maryland lost to UCLA and Missouri in the O?Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic in Kansas City, Mo. In the first five games, the Terrapins have committed 97 turnovers, largely because their guards were trying to force passes to well-guarded teammates.
Sophomore guard Eric Hayes spent more time running the offense against the Mountain Hawks, and both he and Greivis Vasquez made a concerted effort to take better care of the ball and run an efficient offense.
“The guy who will go out and score 40 points and lose the game, I don’t want to be the guy,” said Vasquez, who scored a career-high 22 points of 8-of-10 shooting against Lehigh. “Coach put a lot of emphasis on that, making the team better by passing, making the easy passes and hitting the wide open man so we can hit better shots.”
Williams praised his players after Friday’s win for finding the open man, as the team made 50.9 percent of its shots, and 5-of-14 from three-point range.
Illinois is a superior three-point shooting team, making 32.5 percent of its shots, but it also allows opponents to hit 32.1 percent from beyond the arc. The
Maryland defeated Illinois, 72-66, last year in Champaign, Ill., in last year?s Big 10/ACC Challenge, which broke the Illini?s 51-game non-conference winning streak at Assembly Hall dating to 1988.
Illinois is coming off a strong showing at the Maui Invitational, where it defeated Arizona State and Oklahoma State, but fell to Duke, 79-66. The Fighting Illini are led by forward Brian Randle (11.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg) and center Shaun Pruitt (11.2 ppg, 8 rpg).
“It’s going to be a big game Wednesday,” Hayes said. “They’re going to come in here fired up because we beat them last year at their place. They’re going to want to do the same thing to us, so we’ll have to be ready and have a good three days of practice and get ready for them.”
