Terps top Illinois, 69-61

College Park (Map, News) - With minimal input from its leading scorer, Maryland found its offense Wednesday and pushed past rival Illinois. Sophomore Greivis Vasquez was 2-for-14 from the field and finished with a season-low seven points points, but the rest of the Terrapins stepped up in a 69-61 win over Illinois in the Big 10/ACC Challenge at Comcast Center.

The Terrapins (5-2) out-lasted a late push by Illinois (4-2) for its biggest win of the young season, improving to 5-2 in the all-time series against the Illini.

“My teammates stepped up big time. That’s a big win for us. I think we did very well with everybody playing as a team,” Vasquez said. “If we play like we played today, we’re going to be pretty big-time good.”

Maryland’s biggest lead was seven, and Illinois cut it to three with 26.3 seconds to play. Sophomore Eric Hayes, who shot 4-of-7 from three-point range for a career-high 18 points, sunk two free throws with 23.6 seconds left to put the game out of reach, bringing chants of “ACC! ACC!” from the Terrapin faithful.

The Terrapins shot 44.3 percent from the field, including 6-of-19 from three-point range.

“I think it’s much better than a couple games ago,” said sophomore Eric Hayes, who led the Terps with a career-high 18 points. “We have a young team and it’s definitely going to be a learning process all year. We’re not really where we want to be on offense, but it’s definitely a work in progress.”

Maryland is now 6-3 in the Big 10/ACC Challenge, including 4-0 at home.

“We had something to prove,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “We had to prove we could beat a good team, and I think that was on our minds tonight coming into our game. We got the win through our defensive effort and rebounding in the second half.”

Illinois narrowly won the rebounding battle, 42-41, but Maryland out-rebounded them by six in the second half.

Williams got a solid performance from many of his role players, including freshmen Braxton Dupree (10 points, five rebounds), Cliff Tucker (nine points, five rebounds) and Jerome Burney (four points on two energizing dunks). Despite a poor shooting night, Vasquez added 10 assists and seven rebounds.

“We had a lot of guys contribute,” Williams said. “We’ve been trying to sell that since the first practice of the year. We have to play as a team this year.”

swelsh@baltimoreexaminer.com

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