The United Center was buzzing on Wednesday night with 17,775 fans in attendance, a large majority dressed in orange and blue. Despite the game being held on home turf, No. 8 Illinois (4-1) underwhelmed the Chicago crowd, losing to No. 11 Alabama (3-1) 90-86. A lack of offensive rhythm or consistency on the defensive end allowed the Crimson Tide to steal a win in the Windy City, handing the Illini their first loss of the season.

“They won the game at the start of the second half and just kind of jumped on us,” said head coach Brad Underwood. “I thought we got really stagnant offensively.”

Illini stay ahead early … barely

The Crimson Tide and the Illini stayed at each other’s throats throughout the first 20 minutes, but the home team always stayed ahead, ever so slightly. A five-minute scoring drought for the Illini midway through the half didn’t help them pull away, and the Crimson Tide kept chomping at the bit, staying neck-and-neck. When Illinois tried to run up the score at the end of the first half, Alabama just kept fighting back.

With under two minutes, sophomore guard Mihailo Petrović, freshman guard Keaton Wagler and graduate student forward Ben Humrichous all drilled threes. However, each three was responded to immediately, with Alabama knocking down three triples of their own to cancel out Illinois’ progress as it occurred. Heading into the break, the Illini only led by one, 42-41.

“Fighting to be within one at half with how much we were getting killed on the glass, I thought we were fortunate,” said Alabama head coach Nate Oats.

Mirković and Stojaković lead first-half offensive charge

While consistent offensive production was hard to come by from their teammates early on, freshman forward David Mirković and junior wing Andrej Stojaković kept the Illini afloat.

Mirković, as Illini fans have gotten used to, made an immediate impact. He had 10 points on 4-8 shooting, including going 2-4 from deep. Mirković also had seven rebounds in the opening half, leading all players and providing the Illini with much-needed physicality and energy down low.

Stojaković was near-perfect in shooting the ball in the first half. In his first six minutes on the floor, he was a perfect 4-4 from the floor and had nine points. In that stretch, Stojaković knocked down a three, threw down a dunk on the fastbreak and showed his ability to create separation in the midrange and knock down pull-up jumpers. He ended the half with 12 points.

“I think the biggest thing is taking one possession at a time,” Stojaković said. “In my previous two years, I haven’t been in many ranked matchups. And these types of games have really got to value every possession.”

Stagnant Illini offense struggles to produce in second half

Nothing was working for Illinois for the majority of the second half. The offense was stagnant, and shots were not falling. There were numerous isolation actions on the perimeter, along with a lack of movement, cuts and chemistry. Compare that to Alabama, which constantly kept the ball moving and had high energy, and things did not look good for Illinois. 

“Definitely though, just maybe just being more persistent with getting the ball from side to side (would’ve been beneficial),” said senior guard Kylan Boswell

Boswell was the only Illini who had any positive offensive production for the first leg of the final 20 minutes. At the 12-minute mark, he was 4-8 from the field while the rest of the team could not score, going 0-10.

When not much on the outside was happening for Illinois, the team altered its approach and got to the rim more, hoping to draw fouls and cut into the deficit at the line. After only five attempts from the charity stripe in the first half, the Illini took 17 in the second half. However, getting to the line did not help them as much as they would’ve hoped since they only knocked down 52.9% of those shots.

“When you play a top-10 team, you sure as heck can’t go nine for 17 in a half from the free throw line when we’re trying to get downhill and at the rim,” Underwood said.

The lack of conversion on free throws was a major reason for Illinois’ offense struggling to put points on the board. The opportunities were there, but the Illini did not meet the moment.

Stojaković, Boswell bring Illini back within striking distance 

Illinois could not buy a three-pointer, going 1-10 from deep in the first 15 minutes of the second half. With that strategy not working, the Illini started to shift their focus to getting to the rim, with Boswell and Stojaković putting the team on their backs. In total, the pair had 34 of Illinois’ 44 second-half points, all of which came inside the arc.

“I think in the time frame of the game, it just made sense for me and him to get downhill and get the best looks for the team,” Boswell said. “And they were getting into us, and he’s huge on finding the right matchups — and whatever’s working in the moment, we’re gonna continue doing.” 

Despite missing all four of his second-half three-point attempts, Boswell was effective around the basket. He scored 20 points in the final 20 minutes on 7-10 two-point field goals and 6-7 free throws.

Stojaković continued his first-half offensive output into the second half, going 6-10 from the field en route to 14 points. Although he helped his team get back into the contest, Stojaković also contributed heavily to the Illini’s free-throw woes that partly cost them the game. He shot a rough 2-5 from the line in the second half.

A couple of late threes from Humrichous helped Boswell and Stojaković cut the lead to two with a few seconds remaining, but it was not enough to get past a productive Alabama offense, led by sophomore guard Labaron Philon Jr.

Philon closes game for Crimson Tide

Philon Jr. showed exactly why he heavily considered staying in the NBA Draft after his freshman season. He had 19 second-half points on 7-12 shooting, including a couple of key buckets in the waning moments of the game that countered Boswell’s successful buckets at the rim.

“He’s a pro,” Underwood said. “He’s a really good player, and he made the plays. And sometimes good players just have the ability to take over a game like that, and he did that tonight.”

Philon was tough to guard in part because Boswell, Illinois’ toughest defender of opposing lead guards, was in foul trouble. He played with four fouls for the last six minutes and 50 seconds of the game and could not be as aggressive because he needed to stay in the game to fuel Illinois’ offense.

“The main thing is being in foul trouble, just not being able to be as aggressive as I would like to,” Boswell said. “But no, he’s a great player. I mean, that’s without a doubt, 100%. But yeah, I just was frustrated I couldn’t be as physical.”

In the final minutes, whenever Illinois pushed, Alabama responded. Illinois could not get a stop when they needed it, and Alabama was able to pull away by four points amid a myriad of fouls and free throws in the waning seconds.

Alabama rebounds from rebounding failure against Purdue

A lack of late-game defense, inconsistent offense and failure to make free throws all contributed to Illinois being in a hole that was too tough to climb out of at the end of the game. A lack of energy when it came to rebounding did not help either.

Junior center Zvonimir Ivišić, at 7-foot-2, only had three total rebounds, and Mirković went away on the glass in the second half, only grabbing three compared to seven in the first half. In total, the Illini had five more rebounds in the first half, but the Crimson Tide had three more in the second.

Illinois only won the overall rebounding battle by two, a far cry from Purdue’s 24-rebound margin when it beat Alabama by seven last week. The Crimson Tide learned their lesson and fought hard on the glass, doing their best to keep the battle tight against the Illini, who have been one of the best rebounding teams in the nation so far this season.

“You win games by rebounding,” Underwood said. “And I expected a different Alabama team than the one we saw against Purdue. We got just ditty-bapped on the glass. Credit to Purdue. Maybe we better get a lot better if Purdue got them by 20. But I do think that (sophomore forward Keitenn) Bristow, wow. Difference in the game. Just effort, just playing hard. My hat’s off to him. And then I thought that the other kid, (number) five, (freshman forward Amari) Allen, those two guys were active and fought their tail off. And they helped them a great deal on the glass.”

Petrović debuts, Tomislav Ivišić returns

Even though Illinois fell on Wednesday night, there were two positives in the injury department. First, Petrović made his Illini debut after sitting out the first four games of the season with a hamstring injury. 

Petrović only played 12 minutes, but he dished out five assists and knocked down his only shot attempt: a top-of-the-key three-pointer. Petrović looked relaxed on the offensive end, which is the type of demeanor everyone around the team had hoped for after seeing how maturely he ran offenses overseas.

“Mihailo, I thought, was outstanding,” Underwood said. “First game and let it be against maybe the best backcourt in the country. That speed and just feel comfortable in this environment, my hat’s off to him. Literally, he’s had three days now of full practice of our 40, so three. He’s going to be just fine. He’s going to settle in. You can see with Kylan and (Andrej), they have a lot of confidence in him because they do see his ability.”

The 6-foot-2 Serbian was a little slow to move on the defensive end, but as he gets back to game speed, that should improve. But it will need to be a focus point in his development throughout the year.

The United Center also witnessed the return of junior center Tomislav Ivišić, who had only played one game, the season opener on Nov. 3, due to a knee injury. As he checked in, the star big man received a standing ovation and “Tomi” chants. 

Tomislav Ivišić’s performance was a mixed bag in his 14 minutes. A corner triple was his only bucket (1-2 shooting), and he had three rebounds. However, his lack of stamina showed, with three turnovers and two fouls also being a part of his stat line.

“(Strength coach Adam Fletcher) told me today, you know, maybe 15 to 20 minutes would be a good number (for Tomislav),” Underwood said. “His conditioning is just not there. You want to be fair to him. And we need Tomi. We need his passing. We need his facilitating. We need his brains. And it shows the most on the defensive side, to be very honest with you. And so I think as we get these next couple games, we need to see amped up minutes and better conditioning.”

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