Playing in front of a home crowd of 1,000 or more rowdy students could cause difficulty for the opposing team. But for the Illinois men’s wheelchair basketball team, it only helps its effort.

“We’re a team that thrives off of the crowd, whether it’s for us or against us,” Illini senior Alex Grunstein said. “The crowd didn’t affect us at all.”

The Illini won three out of four games over weekend in Arlington, Texas, beating tournament host Texas-Arlington, 62-42. They also beat Alabama, 83-53, and Missouri, 68-33.

The only loss for Illinois came against the defending club national champions, the Dallas Texans, who beat the Illini, 70-52. After losing to Dallas last year, Illinois was looking for some revenge but didn’t close out the game after leading early.

“We were leading at the half, which was great,” Grunstein said. “They came out in the second half a lot more aggressive, and we weren’t getting any calls, which made us a little flustered.”

After taking a seven-point lead into the break, the Illini were outscored 41-16 in the second half.

“They got really physical with us. We are small, quick and light, (and) Dallas is a big team,” head coach Mike Frogley said. “If Dallas bumped us, we really felt it. That aggressive play unsettled us.”

Although it was a tough loss, the Illini believe it was a great learning experience early in the season.

“The loss was definitely a little painful, we wanted to get revenge from last year,” captain Steve Serio said. “But the game was really positive for us, it showed us what we need to improve on this week in practice.”

One of those things the Illini will need to work on in practice is not letting distractions such as fouls or the size of the other team affect them. Serio said to defeat these distractions, the Illini need to work together better as a team, rather than individuals.

The Illini worked hard last week in practice on improving their defensive press. The result of that hard work was forcing 46 turnovers in the four games and making quick scores, which is what Frogley wanted from his team.

“We shot a really good percentage overall this tournament. We forced a lot of turnovers that generated a lot of high-percentage shots,” Frogley said.

“We got better at reading the press, and we were successful pressing against teams that were faster and bigger than us,” Frogley added.

This was another step in the right direction and a good learning experience, Frogley said.

Frogley would still like to have his team work on breaking opponents’ press this week in practice.

“Our transition got caught up playing in a straight line,” Frogley said. “We need to cross the ball more and make picks. Whenever we did get a pick, it resulted to a wide-open layup.”

The team will face tough competition Friday, when it squares off with the No. 1 collegiate team in the nation, Wisconsin-Whitewater.

“It was good we played at UTA this weekend,” Frogley said. “The Dallas aggressiveness and the huge crowd against UTA gave us a taste of what Whitewater will be like.”