CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A little too close for comfort.
In the first ever meeting between the two teams, No. 3 Illinois took care of Sam Houston State at State Farm Center Friday night with an 108-86 win after its first loss of the season Tuesday night in Lubbock.
Despite a messy first-half showing from Illinois that featured one too many missed layups and defensive breakdowns, the second half performance was enough for the Illini to pull away and win decisively.
Big man Tomislav Ivisic carried over the momentum
from his 14-point game on Tuesday and put up a career-high 28 points, his third double-digit point total this season. He carried the Illini from range, knocking down 6-of-14 3-pointers.
His twin brother Zvonimir produced a much needed bounce-back game after a slow start to the season, knocking down his first 3-pointer of the season, snagging three blocks, two steals and flushing a jam home. Zvonimir’s 3-pointer was also his first 3-point make since the Big Ten Tournament loss to Wisconsin last season.
Illinois as a whole improved from range after shooting just 29% from three in Tuesday’s loss, nailing 38% of attempted triples in the win. Sam Houston was making it rain too, though, going 42% from distance—a big reason why they kept Illinois’ lead within single digits for majority of the game.
However, they didn’t quite improve in some other areas. The Illini shot 68% from the free-throw line, didn’t necessarily dominate the glass and allowed the Bearkats to score 86 points.
To no surprise, Andrej Stojakovic followed right behind Tomislav Ivisic on offense for the Illini, charging the basket to tally 26 points and yet another superman jam.
Despite only racking up 11 points, freshman Quentin Coleman impacted the game in other areas, with eight rebounds, six assists and *four* steals.
After a subpar performance against the Red Raiders, where he shot 2-of-10 from the 3-point line and knocked down just 2-of-6 free throws, Providence transfer Stefan Vaaks came out of the gates with something to prove, tallying 14 points and multiple highlight plays, with this being one of them:
Stat Stuffers
Illinois:
- Andrej Stojakovic: 26 points, 10-of-16 FG, five rebounds, five assists
- Stefan Vaaks: 14 points, 6-of-11 FG, three rebounds, three assists, one block
- Tomislav Ivisic: 28 points, 10-of-21 FG, 6-of-14 3FG, five rebounds
- Quentin Coleman: 11 points, 4-of-7 FG, eight rebounds, six assists, four steals
- Ethan Brown: 11 points, 3-of-5 3FG, five rebounds, seven assists, three steals
Sam Houston:
- Yoda Oke:
- Aidan McDowell:
- Justin Begg:
Up Next
No. 3 Illinois travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on No. 2 Duke on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in one of the most highly anticipated marquee matchups all year.
