Wagler shines as Illinois wins Big Ten opener at OSU

SB Nation

COLUMBUS, OH. — A roadkill to start off conference play? You bet.

Illinois’ true freshmen took care of business at Value City Arena in Columbus on Tuesday night as the Illini opened Big Ten play with an

88-80 win over Ohio State.

Brad Underwood’s crew (8-2, 1-0 Big Ten) is headed back to Champaign with its third Quad 1 victory thanks to the balanced scoring effort it received when stars Kylan Boswell (4 points, 1-for 4 FG) and Tomislav Ivisic (7 points, 2-for-9 FG) struggled to score. Keaton Wagler (23 points), David Mirkovic (22 points), Andrej Stojakovic (17 points), and Zvonimir Ivisic (13 points) all reached double figures in the scoring column.

Wagler looked spectacular once again, as he continues to outplay his high school recruiting ranking. He provided Illinois with a steady, calming offensive presence which is rare for a freshman, especially one in his first career conference road game.

“[Wagler’s] not afraid of the moment,” Underwood said. “He’s a really, really good basketball player. And when you get really good basketball players, you enjoy ‘em. He’s very coachable. He wants to continue to learn and be educated and grow.”

The Kansas native recorded five assists and hit a number of timely shots. His biggest play of the night came when he drew two defenders and dished it to Tomislav Ivisic for a clutch three-pointer which extended the Illini’s lead to six with 44.7 seconds to go.

The Illini were on fire offensively in the opening half. Mirkovic nailed his first three three-pointers, leading Illinois to a 24-15 lead at the under-12 media timeout. But his hot start paled in comparison to the start Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton got off to.

The senior guard almost single-handedly kept the Buckeyes in the game in the first half. He converted on his first nine field goals and six three-pointers, good enough for 24 points in the first half.

Despite that, Illinois went into the break up 48-42 thanks to their elite shooting performance. The team knocked down 54% of its field goals, made 7-of-14 threes, and went a perfect 11-for-11 from the charity stripe. Not too shabby.

Ohio State (7-2, 1-1 Big Ten) came out of the gates firing in the second half, tying the game up at 53-53 just before the under-16 media timeout. From that point on, the game was drastically slowed down due to an absurd number of fouls called. An astounding 31 whistles were blown in the second half.

Illinois shot the ball poorly in the second half, but was able to take advantage of its many free throw opportunities to maintain the lead they had for the majority of the game.

More importantly, the Illini defense mostly shut down Thornton after his incredible first half. The Buckeyes star finished the game with 34 points. Stojakovic was praised for his defensive effort against the Ohio State star.

“Just being 6-foot-7, [Stojakovic] picked [Thornton] up full court and nothing was easy,” Underwood said. “He got over ball screens. He ran him off the line. It’s a little more difficult to jump over the top of him.”