Illinois point guard Tracy Abrams stood at the top of the key and eyed Brandon Paul as he slyly zipped past two Ohio State defenders toward the hoop. Abrams delivered the “ally” and Paul finished the “oop,” sending the sellout Assembly Hall crowd into a frenzy and forcing the Buckeyes to call a timeout.

Saturday’s 74-55 win by Illinois (14-2, 1-1 Big Ten) over Ohio State (11-3, 1-1) featured a few flashy offensive plays, but the No. 11 Illini truly threw the No. 8 Buckeyes off their game in terms of turnovers.

Ohio State averaged 10.3 turnovers per game heading into the game but finished the first half of Saturday’s contest with 11, ultimately giving the ball away 16 times before the final buzzer sounded.

The game saw a bevy of Illini field goals off of turnovers and also featured an offensively explosive Nnanna Egwu. The center was 7-for-10 from the field on his way to a career-high 16 points.

Paul led the Illini with 19 points after battling the dastardly defense of Aaron Craft — the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year — for much of the game.

While the Buckeyes offense generally looked anemic on Saturday, Deshaun Thomas, the Big Ten’s scoring leader, dropped 24 on the Illini, surpassing his season average of 19.9.

Illinois head coach John Groce cited his team’s toughness as a major factor in the win — particularly compared to its loss earlier in the week to Purdue.

“I was a little disappointed with our toughness on Wednesday night for the first time all year,” Groce said. “We put a couple guys on Front Street in regard to that over the last couple days and they responded at a high level.”

This toughness helped Groce to his first Big Ten win as Illinois’ head coach and his first head-to-head win over his former boss and mentor, Thad Matta. Groce spent seven seasons as Matta’s assistant, following Matta to Butler, Xavier and finally Ohio State before taking his first head coaching job at Ohio.

Patrick can be reached at [email protected].