It wasn’t pretty early and didn’t matter in anyone’s standings, but the Illinois basketball team beat McKendree 101-66 in an exhibition game at State Farm Center on Thursday night. The Illini overcame a slow start, trailing the Division-II Bearcats by as many as 11 in the first half.

But an 11-3 run late in the first half pulled the Illini even at 35-35. They took the lead half a minute later at 39-37 and never looked back. Point guard Tracy Abrams led Illinois with 16 points and freshman guard Jaylon Tate added 13.

“Nobody wants to get down 11,” head coach John Groce said. “But I really was curious to see — and I didn’t call a timeout on purpose — I wanted to see if they could fight their way through it and they did. I thought they showed great poise. We didn’t panic, we didn’t flinch, we hung in there and stayed the course.”

Abrams gave Illini fans a scare on the team’s first defensive possession when he crumpled to the floor after a McKendree basket. He came up limping, favoring his left ankle, and was taken to the locker room to get checked out by the medical staff. But he returned not long after and checked right back into the game.

The injury didn’t appear to faze him the rest of the game.

“I just tweaked my ankle a little bit,” Abrams said. “I retaped and was just thinking: ‘I’ve got to find a way to help my team out.’ We pulled it together as a group, and we looked pretty good.”

Illinois went into halftime with a 47-39 lead. The game wasn’t much of a contest in the second half.

It gave Illini nation its first glimpse of the new-look Illini. Groce’s starting lineup consisted of veterans Abrams, Joseph Bertrand and Nnanna Egwu, along with transfers Rayvonte Rice and Jon Ekey.

Rice also scored 13 points, 10 of them in the first half, and Ekey added another 12.

All five Illinois freshmen saw playing time. Tate saw the most of any of them, backing up Abrams at point guard. He led the team with 25 minutes played and scored six of his 13 points from the free throw line.

“He’s got an ability to lead and communicate,” Groce said of Tate. “I noticed that watching him prior to him coming. He loves to learn, (he’s a) student of the game, he has accepted his role. Sometimes it’s difficult for a freshman to do that.”

McKendree shooting guard Clinton Happe led the Bearcats with 15 points on 3-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. Guard Jeremy Price put in another 12, but it wasn’t enough. Illinois outscored McKendree 54-27 in the second half and outrebounded the Bearcats 46-29 overall.

Groce said his squad was better than it was a week ago during the Orange and Blue scrimmage and, despite the slow start, the improvement showed on the court. Illinois will play its second exhibition game on Nov. 3 against Northwood University.

“Now we’ve got work to do between now and a week from Sunday,” Groce said. “We’ve got time to practice, put some new things in and brush up on the things that we need to improve upon from tonight’s game.”

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.