The No. 13 Illinois men’s basketball team faced a Western Carolina team with a 3-5 record Tuesday night and posted statistics that reflected as much.

The Illini forced 22 Catamounts turnovers, scored 29 points off those turnovers and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds. Illinois wasn’t overly sloppy, either, turning the ball over only 11 times.

And yet, with 4 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the game, Illinois clung to just a 59-56 lead and could not put away Western Carolina. Sophomore point guard Tracy Abrams then scored six of his 10 total points, and D.J. Richardson hit a 3-pointer to stake Illinois (9-0) to a 72-64 victory, keeping first-year head coach John Groce’s team undefeated on the season.

“I thought they were the tougher team for the bulk of the game,” Groce said. “They were ferocious on the glass.”

Illinois shot poorly from the 3-point line in the first half, hitting 4-of-14 from beyond the arc, and overcame early foul trouble from center Nnanna Egwu to enter halftime with a 32-22 lead. Ten Illini took the court in the first half, with contributions from little-used players Mike Shaw and Devin Langford.

With a 10-point lead coming out of halftime, the Illini were poised to bolster their lead, but the Catamounts aggressively attacked Illinois’ defense and went on a 9-2 run to bring their deficit to three points.

Egwu, rested after playing four first-half minutes, hit his first career 3-pointer to stop the Western Carolina run. Both teams exchanged blows for the rest of the half, including tactical ones from Groce, who trotted out his 2-3 zone to stop gap some of Illinois’ interior troubles.

“I thought our post defense was struggling, and I didn’t think we did a great job of keeping the basketball in front,” Groce said of switching to the zone defense. “They were in a rhythm. We wanted to try and get them out of a rhythm.”

Groce singled out Brandon Paul, for driving to the hoop in the second half, and Abrams, for notching 30 minutes of playing time without a turnover, as reasons why Illinois weathered the Western Carolina run and pulled out the victory.

Seniors Paul and Richardson led Illinois in scoring, notching 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Groce said his biggest disappointment in Tuesday night’s performance was that his team had practiced in the last week far better than it played Tuesday. Illinois had a five-day break between contests after its victory over Georgia Tech last Wednesday, and Groce expressed his pleasure with those practices in the days leading up to Western Carolina.

“I was disappointed because we didn’t play like we practice,” Groce said. “Guys were locked in and knew what we needed to get better at (in practice). Guys, I thought, were excited to be at practice, great energy, great attitude.”

Certain areas that required mental focus, including executing “after timeout” plays and taking charges, were absent from most of the first half. Groce stressed that his players needed to be tougher, and that his players were well aware that they did not perform to standards.

“I think they out-toughed us. We have to be tough,” Richardson said. “We have to do a better job of throwing haymakers all game. We have to play 40 minutes.”

Thomas can be reached at [email protected] and @ThomasBruch.