INDIANAPOLIS — The Big Ten hath no fury like a scorned Rodney Rice.
Left out of any conference honors announced earlier this week, the Maryland guard figured there was no better place to show voters what they got wrong than on the league’s biggest stage.
Rice scored a season-high 26 points, including 11 in a row during an 18-point first half, as No. 2 seed Maryland opened the floodgates early and poured it on, trouncing No. 7 seed Illinois 88-65 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday
“For sure. I’m glad I got the motivation now,” Rice said of the snub. “I’m going to just continue to play and let my game do the talking.”
Rice powered Maryland behind a career-high seven made 3-pointers on nine attempts amid an overall 8-of-12 day from the floor.
“It just felt good leaving my hand, and that’s what the rest of them felt like,” he said. “So it was definitely a good night.”
Backcourt mate Ja’Kobi Gillespie added 12 points and 9 assists, center Derik Queen recorded his 14th double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, and reserve forward Jordan Geronimo added 11 points, as the Terrapins registered their most points off the bench (15) in two months.
“Feels great to be able to contribute and to be able to help my team win,” Geronimo said. “I trust my teammates to find me, and that’s what they did. They trust me with the ball, and I was able to put it in the rim. So shout out to them too.”
Maryland (25-7) buried the Fighting Illini with a 57-point first half, its most in any conference tournament game in school history. It also forced 11 Illinois turnovers in the first 20 while committing none, closing the half on a 13-3 run.
“Any time you’re up 26 at halftime, you must have done something right,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. “I thought we came out very focused, really understood what we wanted to do with the game plan. Again, the second time you play someone, you have a better feel for them.”
Illinois (21-12) was led by Kasparas Jakucionis’ 15 points and 10 rebounds, and 15 from Will Riley. The highest-scoring team in the Big Ten, the Illini were held nearly 20 points under their average a day after scoring 106 in a win over 15th-seeded Iowa.
“I think we have a lot we can learn from a team like them,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “But it was probably my fault for not doing a good enough job, one, getting these guys mentally … what’s the right word … dialed into understanding what this was going to be.”
The win is Maryland’s 12th in its last 14 games, putting the Terrapins into their first Big Ten semifinal since 2016. They await the winner of No. 3 Michigan and No. 6 Purdue in a semifinal Saturday afternoon.
Queen and Julian Reese, who finished with 10 points, immediately went inside against 7-foot-1 Illini center Tomislav Ivisic on Maryland’s first two possessions, a similar script to the one used when he wasn’t in the lineup Jan. 23, a 91-70 Terrapins win. Maryland also racked up three fouls in the first 2:11, and four in the first 4 mins. The interior strategy and foul issues, however, wouldn’t matter in the face of what Rice unleashed.
The Clinton, Maryland, native scored at will and from everywhere in a mid-half flourish that essentially decided the outcome barely after it began.
Rice drove the lane to garner contact and make subsequent foul shots. He hit from the elbow. He hit from straight away at the top of the key. And he hit from deep in the corner in front of the Illini bench, drawing another foul to complete a demoralizing 4-point play.
By the end of his rampage, Maryland led 26-15. Ivisic would pick up his third foul in barely 8 minutes on the floor soon after, and the Illini were unable to answer the Terrapins’ dominance.
So dominant was Maryland’s scoring in the first half that Geronimo, who entered the game 1-of-5 from 3-point range, even took a shot from beyond the arc and made it, adding to his season-high in scoring.
“We just focused in practice,” Geronimo said of Maryland’s preparation and six-day layoff since last Saturday’s regular-season finale. “Coach Willard does a great job making sure that we stay sharp in practice, and knowing that we haven’t performed well after long breaks, we were conscious about that, and we was able to lock in and do what we have to do to get this W today.”
Rice hit his sixth and seventh threes on back-to-back possessions near the 12-minute mark of the second half before Queen scored seven Maryland points in a row. Maryland stretched the lead to 83-48 off those buckets, part of an eventual 14-0 run as Queen eclipsed 500 points for the season, only the third freshman in Maryland history to do so.
Maryland’s three turnovers were a season low, while it scored 22 points off Illinois’ 17 giveaways.
“The first game was a little different because they didn’t have Ivisic,” Willard said. “They are a talented team, and they’re really good, but they’re also young. So I kind of like the fact that we can post-up, we can go at them and be a little bit more physical. I think they’ve struggled against teams that have been physical with them just because they’re young.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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