It’s rare to see All-American guard Ayo Dosunmu get locked down. In fact, it really hasn’t happened in Dosunmu’s last 42 games with the Illini, a lengthy stretch where the junior scored in double digits every single time.

Even on the off chance that Dosunmu failed to produce offensively, his teammates were there to pick up the pieces. Whether it’s Kofi Cockburn making the opposing center look like a junior varsity player, Trent Frazier draining consecutive contested 3-pointers or even freshman Andre Curbelo crafting magical ways to sneak past every defender, the Illini offense almost always had an answer.

But Loyola Chicago — which ranks third nationally in defensive efficiency by KenPom — strutted into Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Sunday with a mission. The No. 8 Ramblers wanted to shut down  Illinois’ transition game and ball screen offense — something no team had done before against the No. 1 seed. But with “resiliency and togetherness,” Porter Moser’s squad did the unthinkable and took down the Illini in the second round of March Madness.

‘We put everybody in them,” Brad Underwood said. “We tried putting Ayo in shakes to get him going, I thought we tried to establish in Kofi. We didn’t go early enough to Kofi. I thought we missed him, and when we did go to him early, he missed three or four. We tried everything in the bag. Everything that’s made us one of the most efficient offensive teams today, just for whatever reason didn’t work.”

The Illini haven’t had an offensive outing like Sunday’s performance all season. Their 24 first-half points and 58 total points were both season-lows. They scored just two transition points against the Ramblers despite averaging 14.9 per game.

Dosunmu scored a season-low nine points. Frazier was 1-10 from the field, and Cockburn and Adam Miller were the only Illini to score in double digits.

Neither Dosunmu nor Underwood had many answers in the postgame press conference, but what they did know was Loyola executed; they did not.

“They’re just solid,” Dosunmu said. “They’re a solid basketball (team). They followed their coach’s game plan, and they did a tremendous job at that. At the end of the day, I think we still had good looks, (but) we just couldn’t throw a penny in the ocean.”

By knocking Illinois on its heels right out of the gates, Loyola was able to force 17 turnovers, including six from Dosunmu and four from Curbelo. And the Ramblers’ defense turned into offense. They scored 14 points off turnovers and had the transition advantage, forcing the Illini to scramble defensively, an unusual defensive mode for Underwood’s squad.

While Loyola’s defense startled Illinois, to the Ramblers, that was just their everyday scheme. Sure, they focused on double-teaming Dosunmu on ball screens or throwing nearly every defender on Cockburn down low, but their speed, aggressiveness and overall chemistry has been that way all year.

“It’s been a whole season of that,” said Loyola center Cameron Krutwig. “That’s our defense. Coach said that today; it’s not just a 48-hour scout. We’ve been working our whole season on our defense.

“I guess people kind of forgot or something, but we were the No. 1 defense in the country this year. I guess people chalk it up to maybe being a mid-major or something, but we play hard, play the right way and we follow the scout and follow the scheme.”

Along with Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year Lucas Williamson, Krutwig was the driving force in attacking Illinois’ high-powered offense. The Loyola big man not only bullied Cockburn in the paint, but he came to the top of the key and boxed Dosunmu in on Illinois’ ball screens.

“I thought (Krutwig) had a great defensive game today, and he had a huge assignment,” Moser said. “You’re sitting there saying, ‘Krut, you’ve got to ball screen D against Ayo, an All-American, but then you’ve got to post D against Kofi, an All-American in the post. Have at it, big boy.’ I thought he was very, very good defensively, as well, against elite players. Those are terrific players.”

Even when Dosunmu found his way around Krutwig, Williamson was almost always right there, up in his face, forcing him to go left. Williamson was also able to beat Dosunmu off the dribble a few times for some easy layups, further frustrating the Illini’s star guard.

At the end of the day, Loyola was the better all-around team on Sunday. The Ramblers did what every Big Ten team failed to do against the Illini, and their energy and competitiveness ended a historic Illinois season.

“The guys believed, I’m telling you,” Moser said, “They believed from the start. We always talk about having a confident respect. The utmost respect for all of them for what they did, but you’ve got to have confidence you can beat them. I just saw that confident respect, because we’ve seen them do so well on TV, and the guys had that confident respect to beat them.”

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