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12/7 Big Ten Recap: Maryland Stuns Illinois

Recap all the Big Ten action from Saturday night.

NCAA Basketball: Illinois at Maryland Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Most of the Big Ten might have been focused on Indy yesterday, but there was plenty of action on the hardwood as well. That action included an upset in Madison and a shocking comeback effort from Maryland against Illinois.

Let’s take a look at what happened.

Game of the Night:

-No. 3 Maryland Terrapins 59, Illinois Fighting Illini 58

Whew. That’s about all that needs to be said about this one. After getting down big in the first half, Maryland somehow found a way to come back and beat Illinois at home. The win helped the Terps avoid what would have been one of the biggest upsets of the season and improved to 10-0 on the season for the first time in well over a decade.

For Illinois, there’s no way to describe this one other than heartbreaking. For roughly 35 minutes, it looked like the Illini would come out of College Park with one of its best victories in years. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of the team’s biggest collapses. And while it’s still too early to know how this game will impact the postseason, it’s hard not to think that Illinois blew a key opportunity here.

Both teams will move on toward challenging games this week. Maryland gets Penn State on the road on Tuesday and Illinois gets Michigan at home on Wednesday.

The Rest:

-No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes 106, Penn State Nittany Lions 74

Ohio State entered this game as a significant favorite and the actually outperformed expectations in cruising to a 106-74 win at home. The win pushed the Buckeyes to 9-0 overall, 1-0 in Big Ten play, and to No. 1 nationally on KenPom. Meanwhile, the loss dropped Penn State to 7-2 overall and 0-1 in league play.

Moving forward, Penn State will now prepare to face Maryland at home on Tuesday for a shot at a marquee win. Ohio State will get some time off before going on the road to face Minnesota next Sunday.

-Creighton Bluejays 95, Nebraska Cornhuskers 76

We knew the odds would be against Nebraska heading into this one, but Husker fans were holding out hope that the team could pull off an upset. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up happening, as Nebraska fell 95-76 on the road. The loss dropped the team to 4-5 overall.

Nebraska will now get a few days off and will hope to get back on track on the road next Friday against Indiana. A win there would be pretty significant.

-Wisconsin Badgers 84, Indiana Hoosiers 64

The Maryland-Illinois game might have been the most exciting game of the day, but this was certainly the most significant. An undefeated Indiana squad went on the road to battle against a Wisconsin team hoping to get back on track after a tough week of play. Add in Indiana’s horrendous recent history in Madison and it looked like this could be a good one.

Unfortunately for Hoosier fans, the game didn’t even end up being very competitive. Wisconsin rushed Indiana out of the gates and never looked back. All told, Wisconsin grabbed an 84-64 win to improve to 5-4 on the season. The loss dropped Indiana to 8-1 overall and 0-1 in league play.

Indiana will now hope to rebound in its next game in New York City against UConn on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Wisconsin will prepare to go on the road on Wednesday to face Rutgers.