LUBBOCK, Texas — The No. 3 Illini dropped the ball against the No. 16 Texas Tech Red Raiders, falling behind by as many as 22 points in the first half, a lead that eventually turned out to be insurmountable.
It certainly was a tale of two halves for Illinois, as they outscored Texas Tech by 14 points in the second half. And yet, their poor performance in the first 20 minutes was too much to overcome, as they fell by a score of 84-78.
Senior guard Andrej Stojakovic attributed part of the loss to the team’s
wrong approach leading up to the game.
“We can’t go into it thinking we’re going to have two different 20 minute halves, in terms of effort, in terms of approach,” Stojakovic said.
Stojakovic also said that the team played less scared and with more intensity and pace in the second half, something that hurts when you look back on how they played in the first.
A big part of the Illini’s misfortunes came from turnovers and an uncharacteristically bad performance from the free-throw line.
As a team, they turned the ball over 16 times and shot 8-19 (42.1%) from the charity stripe. To put that number in perspective, the 2025-26 team shot 78% from the line.
When asked about the free throws in particular, Stojakovic kept it simple.
“I’m gonna do my best as a leader to keep encouraging these guys, you can’t be afraid, it’s free points,” Stojakovic said. “We’ll be better, we won’t go 8-19 again.”
Stojakovic is one of the few veteran players that Illinois was counting on throughout the game.
Him and senior center Tomislav Ivisic were the only upperclassmen to get more than a dozen minutes in the loss, while four freshman all played upwards of 20 minutes.
Walking into your first road game at a hostile venue like United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas can be tough, but in the eyes of Stojakovic, it falls on the veterans to put the young guys at ease.
“Myself, Tomi… we gotta do a better job as older guys to remind them that we are good enough, we belong here, this is our team, all in all, our leadership has to be better, our communication has to be better,” Stojakovic said.
Tuesday night against the Red Raiders, Stojakovic himself struggled out of the gates, but exploded for 14 points in the second half and was a key piece in Illinois’s attempt to erase that looming 22-point deficit.
He’s been on a tear to start the season, averaging 21 points per game on 61% shooting, but unfortunately it was to no avail on Tuesday.
And yet, Stojakovic seemingly left things on a positive note, saying that all of these experiences will be ones that Illinois will learn from.
“You schedule these games at the beginning of the year to get prepped for what’s to come later in the season,” Stojakovic said.
The next challenge for Illinois are at home against Sam Houston on Friday before they hit the road again to travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a date with the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils.
