Illinois coach Brad Underwood would have expected Maryland to attack with beefy bigs Derik Queen (6-foot-10) and Julian Reese (6-foot-9) – two of its three leading scorers – when the Terrapins visited Champaign on Thursday.

And when Illini center Tomislav Ivisic was ruled out of the game because of an illness, Underwood surely would have bet the farm on it.

What he couldn’t do, however, was anything whatsoever to stop it.

Queen, a Big Ten Freshman of the Year candidate, and Reese – launched an all-out assault on the outmanned Illini, combining for XX points as the Terps pulled off a mild 91-70 stunner at the State Farm Center.

Reese finished with a career-high 27 points and 17 rebounds while Queen delivered 25 points, six rebounds and four assists to lead Maryland (15-5, 5-4 Big Ten) to its first road win of the season. No. 17 Illinois, saddled with its third loss in four games, fell to 13-6 and 5-4 in the conference.

With the 7-foot-1 Ivisic in street clothes on Illinois’ bench, Underwood was forced to play a series of funky, undersized lineups and dig deeper into a dwindling bag of tricks as the game wore on. Forward Carey Booth played a season-high 13 minutes. Shooting specialist Jake Davis found himself guarding (gulp!) Queen on the block more than once. For a time, the Illini turned to a press and, as a last resort, even dusted off a zone.

None of it worked – not nearly well enough, anyway – as the Illini were alternately beaten into submission inside and run ragged in transition. Going inside over and over to their two bigs, the Terrapins scored 62 points in the paint – the most by any team in a Big Ten game this season.

When Maryland wasn’t bludgeoning the Illini inside, they were burning by them, outscoring Illinois 17-3 on the fastbreak. The Terps back-tapped, jumped passes and straight-up stole cookies, forcing the Illini into 16 turnovers.

The damage was done early as Reese (16) and Queen (13) both scored in double figures in the first half for the first time this season. Still, a three-pointer from guard Kylan Boswell with 27 second left cut Maryland’s lead to 38-35 at the break.

The Illini simply couldn’t overcome the avalanche of issues that losing Ivisic caused them: weakened interior defense, thinned frontcourt depth, post scoring, perimeter shooting, passing – you name it. Just their luck that they ran into the perfectly wrong opponent at the worst possible time.

Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, but he was also guilty of seven turnovers against a swarming, poking Maryland D that made nearly everything the Illini attempted on offense appear forced and sloppy.

Illini guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn hopped off the bench to score 15 points, and Boswell added 14 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

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