There was a big starting lineup shakeup ahead of now No. 23 Illinois’ (15-7, 7-5) home win against Ohio State (13-9, 5-6) Sunday afternoon. Head coach Brad Underwood followed through on his assertion that he may make some lineup changes, moving junior guard Kylan Boswell and fifth-year forward Ben Humrichous to the bench.

Sophomore guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn entered the starting lineup in place of Boswell. Sophomore center Tomislav Ivišić returned to game action after a bout of mono, so Underwood ran a two-big lineup with Ivišić and freshman forward Morez Johnson Jr. both in the starting five.

Overall, the changes seemed to work. The Illini got a much-needed Big Ten victory to stay above .500 in conference play. As per usual, the Illini had some top-tier performances, this time from a couple of freshmen, along with some lowlights.

Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (B): Gibbs-Lawhorn got his first career start Sunday afternoon, and he took advantage of the opportunity. The game’s highlight was when Gibbs-Lawhorn got a steal and raced down to the other end of the court. The sophomore took off from the Big Ten logo and flew high before he threw down a massive one-handed slam. State Farm Center erupted in response to one of the team’s best in-game dunks in recent memory.

“It caught me off guard a little bit,” said Johnson with a smile.

Gibbs-Lawhorn wasn’t very efficient at the game’s start. He missed his only first-half shot attempt, but he stepped it up in the second half. He scored eight of his 10 points in the second half and shot at a 50% clip. It remains unknown if he’ll stay in the starting lineup, but Gibbs-Lawhorn proved he’s deserving of the spot.

Kasparas Jakučionis (C-): Freshman guard Kasparas Jakučionis struggled with his shot Sunday and went 2-8 from the field, including 0-5 from three. Many of those three-point attempts were contested step-back jumpers. Jakučionis has shown he can get hot and make them at times. In many situations, though, he should look for better shots. The Lithuanian also couldn’t figure it out from the charity stripe, missing half of his eight free throws.

Despite having seven assists, demonstrating his floor vision, Jakučionis turned the ball over four times. Underwood has continually stated that he wants Jakučionis to make mistakes and be aggressive. But lately, he has been more critical of turnovers that are self-inflicted mistakes.

Tre White (D): Junior guard Tre White was in the starting lineup, but you would’ve barely noticed him on the court. In 14 minutes, the least of all the starters, White missed both of his shots and went scoreless. His only impact was two defensive rebounds and a foul that led to a -22  +/-, the worst on the team. White didn’t do anything egregiously bad, but being a starter with no impact on the game is not a good look.

Morez Johnson Jr. (A): Johnson is a beast. The freshman had another monster double-double, scoring 14 points on an efficient 6-8 from the field and grabbing 15 rebounds. Seven of those rebounds were on the offensive glass. Everything he did in the second half was icing on the cake; Johnson already had a double-double at halftime.

“(Johnson) just goes and gets ’em all,” Underwood said. “He’s bouncy and athletic and strong and very hard to block out.”

Johnson is crucial to Illinois’ paint presence, and is becoming one of the most promising freshmen in the country. With Ivišić back, Underwood can experiment with the two-big man lineup, combining a post-focused player in Johnson and stretch-big in Ivišić.

Tomislav Ivišić (B): The return of Ivišić was a surprise, but it was good to see the big man back in action. The 7-foot-1 center struggled with his three-point shot and went 1-5, unsurprising given he hadn’t played in two weeks. However, Ivišić made an impact down low, making four of his six shots inside the arc.

Ivišić finished with a double-double, adding 10 rebounds to his 12 points, a strong first showing back on the court. He had a few turnovers in the first half and looked a little sloppy, but tightened it up in the second. Ivišić only fully returned to practice Saturday, but he was still able to play almost 30 minutes.

“Got a double-double from Tomi, and he’s about 60% with conditioning,” Underwood said. “Adam Fletcher’s done an incredible job with him, just through the workup of finding out what he can do with our docs. … Yesterday was a full day (of practice for Ivišić). … I didn’t know (how long he could play). I was gonna play it by ear, see how he felt. It put a smile on my face to have him back.”

Will Riley (A): Freshman forward Will Riley had his best game of the year since his 31-point debut against EIU. Riley scored 24 points on an extremely efficient 7-9 shooting. The Canadian was focused on getting downhill and drawing fouls while attacking the rim. Riley only took one three, which he made, and instead found other ways to penetrate the Buckeye defense.

“It was kind of part of the scout,” Riley said. “They (Ohio State) don’t really allow too many threes, so I thought it was better to get the paint, go off two (feet), get fouled.”

Riley got to the free throw line at a high rate, shooting 12 and making nine. He shot double-digit free throws for the first time all season. Riley, who had some struggles after an impressive debut, has been showing some improvement recently. He still has to show more consistency, but he is starting to get into a rhythm.

“I feel like I’m just a spark off the bench,” Riley said. “Sometimes the ball’s not going to come to me as much, and sometimes it needs to come to me. I’ll take that opportunity no matter what it is. … If I just come in and try and get my own every possession, I’ve got to realize that it’s not high school, it’s college. It’s a different game, so I just got to help this team win by playing my role.”

Kylan Boswell (B): Boswell came off the bench Sunday for the first time in a while. He started 36-37 games during his sophomore season at Arizona. The Champaign native looked frustrated at times throughout the game, especially after he missed a wide-open layup and then committed a foul on the other end.

Besides that moment, Boswell had a very solid game. He shot 5-8 to finish with 14 points. He recovered after the missed layup, and made some big plays down the stretch to close out the game for Illinois.

“I really challenged (Boswell) the last couple days in practice, and I thought he did a good job,” Underwood said.

Boswell’s defense is almost a given at this point. Ohio State star freshman guard John Mobley Jr. was hot from three. However, Boswell helped hold him to a poor 2-13 shooting on two-point attempts.

“For Kylan, I don’t care what he scores, what he shoots,” Underwood said. “For me he’s an elite defender and he’s got great savvy. To be very honest, he’s pretty damn tough. But I want his spirit to be great. I want his energy to be great. I want him to lead that way.”

Ben Humrichous (C): After going 0-7 from three on Thursday at Nebraska, Humrichous, the oldest Illini, lost his place on the court and was relegated to the bench. He had a block, a steal, a three-pointer and two rebounds in the first half against Ohio State but struggled with foul trouble in the second. Humrichous finished with five points on 2-4 shooting and picked up three second-half fouls.

Jake Davis (C): Sophomore wing Jake Davis played for two minutes and missed the only shot he took. With the lineup shakeup and the team back at full health, Davis played single-digit minutes for only the second time since the start of 2025.

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