Illinois Basketball Starts Building Back Better in Solid Win Over Iowa

A breakthrough? It's far, far too early to call it that. But it's more than fair to call Illinois' 81-61 win over Iowa on Tuesday at Champaign's State Farm Center a building block to something better.

Center Tomislav Ivisic had a game-high 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting to help Illinois (18-11, 10-8) put the brakes on a three-game skid and salve Saturday's traumatic, program-worst loss to Duke in New York City.

For Iowa (15-13, 6-11), it marked the third loss in four games and sixth in eight, leaving the Hawkeyes in the precarious position of trying to avoid being left out of the Big Ten Tournament, which would all but end their season.

From the opening jump, the Illini made a priority of channeling their offense through their big man, as they isolated Ivisic and point guard Kasparas Jakucionis in high-screen-and-roll and produced immediately. Ivisic scored on each of Illinois' first two possessions and had 11 points in the Illini's opening 19-6 run.

When Ivisic hit the bench for a well-deserved rest at 10:57 of the first half, the wheels nearly came off for Illinois. After a Jakucionis layup, the Hawkeyes tore off a 9-0 run that closed the Illini lead to two and didn't end until after Ivisic had re-entered the game and flipped in a slick little reverse to jump-start the offense again.

Behind-the-back pass. Knock-down three.

A thing of beauty. pic.twitter.com/i4RIQx7mAU
— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) February 26, 2025

A pair of Kylan Boswell layups in the closing moments of the half gave Illinois extra cushion for a 37-30 halftime lead, and notably kept the pressure on Iowa's beleaguered defense, which the Illini nearly let off the hook by reverting to some of their worst habits with Ivisic off the floor.

Will Riley found his flow in the second half, scoring 13 of his 15 points after the break. Ivisic, Riley, Boswell (15 points) and Tre White (14 points) all scored in double figures for the Illini. Jakucionis, despite being relatively quiet as a scorer, turned in one of his most consistent and composed performances in weeks with nine points, seven rebounds, three assists and only one turnover.

Even in a 20-point win, there were alarm bells for Illinois: In a shocker, Iowa won the rebounding battle 38-30, and even on a night when the Illini seemed to stroke the ball, they still shot only 31.0 percent (9-for-29) on threes.

Yet they shot 50.8 percent overall, focusing more on the paint (42 points) than the perimeter and limiting their turnovers to a season-low five (which they matched against SIU Edwardsville).

Building blocks and baby steps.