No. 13 Illinois (14-3, 5-1) broke a three-game losing streak at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Wednesday night, taking down Northwestern (8-9, 0-6) on its home court for the first time since 2022. The 79-68 victory did not come easy, but once again, the Illini found a way to secure a Big Ten win on the road.

Freshman guard Keaton Wagler had 20 of his 22 points in the second half, and junior center Tomislav Ivišić dropped 14 of his 21 in the final 20 minutes. Despite Wildcats junior guard Jayden Reid having a 20-point second half of his own, it was not enough for the home team to overcome a composed Illini squad.

“Our guys just had the poise and the patience,” said Illinois head coach Brad Underwood. “The building got loud, and they’ve got momentum at home, and they’ve got a great player in (senior forward Nick Martinelli), and we just kind of snuffed it. Some big shots and some great execution.”

Second chances prove key early

Illinois was not shooting it all that well in the first half, only hitting 22% of its threes. However, as Underwood has said many times before, his team needs to find a way to be productive when the shots don’t fall. The Illini did that to a T against Penn State earlier this month, and Wednesday night was yet another example of them finding a way to win besides consistent shooting.

Second chance buckets were how Illinois stayed alive early on. The Illini out rebounded the Wildcats 10-6 on the offensive glass in the first half, and it was a team effort. Seven Illini grabbed first-half offensive rebounds, including Wagler and Tomislav grabbing two each.

Graduate student guard Ben Humrichous was not credited with any individual offensive boards, but he was key in tipping a lot of missed shots back to his teammates. Off of those 10 first-half offensive boards, the Illini put up 15 second-chance points, which helped them build a small five-point halftime lead.

“I thought (Northwestern) won the first 13, 14 minutes of the game,” Underwood said. “Really our offensive rebounding is what kept us in it in the first half, which was nice to see. I think we got 42, 43 percent of our misses back.”

Tomislav Ivišić and Wagler take over

Something flipped at halftime, and the final 20 minutes looked very different for the Illini offense. The shots started falling, and it was good that they did, because Northwestern had a spark plug of its own.

Reid got extremely hot off the bench, scoring 20 of Northwestern’s 35 second-half points on a very efficient 9 for 15 shooting. Reid has been a streaky scorer this season, but he found magic on Wednesday night and forced Illinois to keep making shots.

Lucky for the Illini, they had two guys that kept finding the bottom of the net. After a first half where he was mostly absent on the stat sheet, Wagler went on a run that is quickly becoming a norm for him. The star freshman dropped 20 second-half points on 7 for 12 shooting, including draining a trio of 3-pointers. Wagler’s scoring outburst in the final 20 minutes was the most points in a half by a Big Ten freshman this season. It’s just another point on his long resume for Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Tomislav also showed up when his team needed him most. After a season of ups and downs, the 7-foot-1 Croatian drilled 3 of his 5 3-point attempts in the second half. Tomislav made his last four shots of the game, including back-to-back treys assisted by Wagler with under three minutes to go. Those shots were key in helping Illinois stay ahead and close out a win in Evanston.

“I think it was just getting the matchups that (Tomislav and I) wanted,” Wagler said. “Because earlier in that half I was getting downhill, getting to the basket. And then it started to kind of mess up their coverage, and I just hit Tomi, and he knocked down the shots.”

Tomislav tied his season-high of 21 points, which he also reached in the season opener back on November 3. He was visibly fired up and looked like prime-Tomislav from last season that was so hard for opponents to stop. Now, it is just a matter of keeping that confidence up over the next couple months.

“It’s what he does,” Underwood said. “It’s why he’s been on draft boards. He’s a big who can shoot the cover off of it. …No one’s ever doubted Tomi. On this team, with this balance, the way teams want to cover us, they gave us that shot.”

Containing Martinelli

Stopping the Big Ten’s leading scorer is going to be tough on any given night, but Underwood was pleased with the job Illinois did to slow down Martinelli.

“I thought we did a solid job on Nick,” Underwood said. “He had a quiet 20 in my opinion. He’s so efficient that it’s really hard to hold him down.”

Martinelli was able to get to the line and shoot four free throws in each half, but he struggled from the field in the last 20 minutes, which is arguably the most important time to slow down a star. Martinelli shot 2 for 7 in the second half and was not able to supplement Reid as much as Northwestern would have liked when Illinois had two guys going off.

Senior guard Kylan Boswell took a lot of the Martinelli assignment on Wednesday, despite the Glenview, Illinois, native being half-a-foot taller. Boswell is not fazed by size differences, evidenced by him guarding Cooper Flagg against Duke last season.  Underwood described Boswell as an, “all caps, problem solver,” and he praised on how versatile Boswell is as a hard-nosed defender.

“To have a player that strong, that athletic, that committed, that dedicated, fighting (Martinelli), which he did … and then when the little guard got going, when Reid got going, we switch him on Reid ,” Underwood said. “It’s just nice to have a guy that versatile. He solves a lot of problems for us.”

Continuing to close out games

Illinois is now 4-0 on the road in conference play this season. The last time any Illini roster accomplished that feat was during the 2004-05 season, and that roster made it all the way to the national championship game. 

What’s been key for Illinois in securing road wins this season has been staying in tune with basic principles on both ends of the floor, especially when things get tight in late-game situations.

“It’s definitely on the defensive side, just getting stops,” Wagler said about closing out games. “We know we’ll be able to score in these games. It just comes down to getting stops, getting rebounds and making late-game free throws.”

Last season, the Illini blew a 15-point halftime lead against the Wildcats. This year though, Illinois stayed steady and didn’t allow Northwestern to build any significant momentum to turn the tide of the game. As a returner who has played on both teams, Tomislav attributes the difference to a change in team mentality, in part caused by having a more experienced roster.

“In tough moments when we’re up, I feel like we don’t rush,” Tomislav said. “Nobody’s in the mentality that he wants to win us that game. It’s us. We want to win this game. …I feel like we’re more mature.”

Health update

Mirković did not start the game due to an illness. According to Underwood, the Illini have been without him for a couple of days due to the flu. Although he went through pregame warmups, Mirkovic was not out on the bench at tipoff because he was getting IV fluids. However, he joined Illinois a few minutes into the game and ended up playing 30 minutes. 

“(Mirković) hasn’t eaten, it’s been a blah two days” Underwood said. “He said today, he goes, ‘I’m tough, I’m tough.’ That’s who he is. …He came back out to the bench and said, ‘I’m good to go, play me.’”

Wagler was also a little bit limited early on with some pregame back spasms, but they didn’t seem to slow the freshman down much when it mattered.

“I just had to get going and try not to think about it as much,” Wagler said. “Warmups it was bothering me , but then once I got out there and started playing, got into the flow of the game, I didn’t feel anything at all. Especially in that second half. My back feels much better now.”

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