In front of a crowd in Evanston full of Illinois fans, the Illini (6-2, 0-1) fell to the Wildcats (7-3, 1-1) 66-70 in their Big Ten opener. I-L-L chants rang in Welsh Ryan Arena throughout the game, but the more experienced Wildcats were able to push through in overtime, closely defeating the younger Illini.
Riley, Ivišić lead first-half charge
The Illini scored 27 points in the first half, and freshman forward Will Riley and sophomore center Tomislav Ivišić combined for 19. Riley scored 11 points, while Ivišić had eight.
Riley’s points mostly came from his aggressiveness around the basket. The Canada native missed both of his three-point attempts but attacked the rim efficiently, making 4-5 of his shots inside the arc. He also drew the only shooting fouls called on Northwestern in the first half, making 3-4 free throws.
Ivišić, on the other hand, showcased his sharpshooting ability, knocking down 2-3 of his first-half three-point attempts. The 7-foot-1 Croatian also made plays for his teammates, zipping a pass into the paint for junior guard Tre White and dishing out a beautiful behind-the-back assist to Riley for a bucket. Ivišić totaled three assists and three rebounds in the first half in addition to his eight points.
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“You saw his IQ and feel with the little behind-the-back flip,” said head coach Brad Underwood about Ivišić. “Those are all things we see every day, and he’s very gifted, and we’ll continue to grow and play offense through him.”
Wildcats take away three-pointer
Underwood knew coming into the game that Northwestern would do its best to take away as many three-point shots as they could from Illinois, whose offense was averaging almost 34 attempts from deep per game heading into Friday night.
The Wildcats accomplished that goal in the first half, limiting the Illini to only eight first-half three-point attempts, their lowest of the season. Of those eight shots, the Illini only made two three-pointers in the first half, both coming from Ivišić.
The Illini took more threes in the second half, 20, but they still couldn’t get a high percentage of them to fall. Illinois made 25% of its threes in the second half and shot 26.5% from long-range overall.
In a game where it was obvious Northwestern did not want Illinois to shoot, it needed to convert on more of the chances it got. Graduate student forward Ben Humrichous was a black hole for the Illini, going 1-9 from deep.
“The biggest thing I was probably most disappointed in was our offensive rebounding,” Underwood said. “You know, you go one of 15 from Ben and Will from three, and you don’t get any of those rebounds back.”
Freshman guard Kasparas Jakučionis echoed that same sentiment after the game.
“We didn’t go to the offensive glass a lot,” Jakučionis said. “I think we kind of secured defensive ones, but we have to go to the offensive glass a lot more because when the shots don’t go in, you cannot win.”
Northwestern didn’t shoot it any better than Illinois, only making an abysmal 19% of its threes. However, they made their presence felt in the paint, especially in overtime. They broke down Humrichous’ defense, who played down the stretch over the much more physical freshman forward Morez Johnson Jr.
The teams’ gap in physicality, combined with the Illini’s inability to make their shots down the stretch, was the difference maker for the Wildcats, who handed the Illini their third straight loss at Welsh Ryan Arena.
“We were at a four-minute drought on the offensive side, and Ben’s been a guy that’s one of the top three-point shooters going, and he got great looks,” Underwood said. “If you think I’m going to take a guy out because he misses a couple jump shots, I’m not. Yeah, maybe Morez defensively at a time or two, but we were in a four-minute drought where we weren’t scoring.”
Jakučionis lights up late, too late for Illini
It was a rough first half offensively for Jakučionis. The 18-year-old turned the ball over three times and only scored once, shooting 1-4 from the field. Jakučionis was under a lot of ball pressure from the Northwestern defense, affecting his ability to create for himself or his teammates. However, he did find other ways to contribute, grabbing a team-high seven first-half rebounds.
Jakučionis lit it up in the second half, though, knocking down 4-7 three-pointers, including a corner three off of an inbounds play to end an over four-minute-long scoring drought for Illinois.
In overtime, it was more of the same from Jakučionis. The native of Lithuania hit two big threes to do his best to counter a tough Northwestern post presence, who seemed to find the bottom of the net every trip down the floor.
However, Jakučionis’ spark was not enough due to the poor execution of Illinois as a whole. Northwestern outscored Illinois 14-10 in overtime to close out a game that had been neck-and-neck since it tipped off.
“At the end, they were more physical; they knew what they were doing in overtime,” Ivišić said. “At the end, it seemed like they wanted it more.”
Overall, Jakučionis shot 43.8%, including an extremely efficient 6-10 from three. These games will be good for Jakučionis, who will likely be Illinois’ closer down the stretch throughout the season.
“We have to learn from these games,” Jakučionis said. “It’s our first close game, first game of overtime and we’re playing away with another crowd, so we just have to learn from it, learn from mistakes and better keep focusing on Wisconsin now.”
Despite the loss, Jakučionis took much better care of the ball in the second half and overtime, only turning it over once while registering five assists.
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