Sunday was a career day for Jon Ekey, at least in an orange and blue uniform. The Illini forward scored 19 points and snatched seven rebounds as Illinois beat Bradley 81-55 at State Farm Center.

Ekey’s 19 points were the most he’s scored in his short Illinois career and the most since scoring 22 as an Illinois State Redbird in December of 2010. Illinois improved to 4-0 while handing Bradley its first loss of the season after four victories to open the year.

“It was just one of those days where it was going,” Ekey said. “Just feeling good early in the game and guys kept finding me.”

Ekey came out firing from the opening tipoff, hitting three of his first four 3-point attempts. In all, he had 11 points in the first half, including a two-handed tip slam off of a missed Tracy Abrams 3-pointer.

Things got chippy later in the half after Illinois guard Rayvonte Rice was fouled hard by Braves guard Xzavier Taylor. Rice didn’t take kindly to the contact and got up from the floor shouting. Referees assessed a double-technical foul.

Play otherwise remained clean, with Illinois taking a 34-19 lead into halftime. If that lead wasn’t enough, Illinois came out in the second half and hit a barrage of threes. In the first four minutes of the half Abrams hit two, Joseph Bertrand hit one and Ekey added another.

The Illini shot 7-for-11 from behind the 3-point arc in the second half and hit 10 total 3s for the game, the most its hit all season. Illinois dominated the Braves on the glass, out-rebounding Bradley 49-25. Abrams led the Illini with eight and Rice and center Nnanna Egwu each.

Head coach John Groce has emphasized rebounding to his guards in recent weeks, and it showed with Abrams leading the team.

“Every day coach challenges us to rebound, go in there and dig some out,” Abrams said. “Tonight we exemplified that pretty well.”

Bradley’s Tyshon Pickett led the Braves with 21 points and Walt Lemon, Jr., put in another 12.

Bradley head coach Geno Ford, brother of Illini assistant Dustin Ford, thought Illinois simply outplayed his team in the paint. He referenced Egwu’s shot-blocking presence as a key to Illinois’ victory.

“Egwu changed the whole game because he blocked a couple shots early,” Ford said. “We haven’t seen that kind of size and length. As soon as he did that we did an awful job of finishing in traffic.”

“I think he’s one of the best defensive forwards that I’ve coached,” Groce said of Egwu. “He’s so versatile and can do so many different things. You don’t see guys with that size and that weight move with that type of mobility.”

Illinois cruised through the second half, leading by as much as 26 at the 12:10 mark and again at the final buzzer. Rice and Abrams finished with 13 and 12 points. Rice also had a pair of highlight-reel dunks in the second half on lobs from Bertrand and freshman point guard Jaylon Tate.

“We play together, we share the ball, and we did a great job of that tonight,” Abrams said. “That’s great for us. Coach talks about transition, we’re a good transition team, but we’ve got to play transition defense as well as get out and run.”

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