Game 3: No. 8 Illinois 77, Ohio 75 - Grades & Player of the Game
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois head coach Brad Underwood wanted his team to get tested and face adversity.
It's unclear whether the fourth-year Illini coach wanted his team to be down eight points with 13:47 left in a game to a Mid-American Conference opponent that hasn't finished in the top half of its league in three years.
Th effort on the defensive end of the floor and a lack of overall execution in its halfcourt sets got exposed Friday before the No. 8 Illini attempt to undertake No. 2 Baylor, No. 9 Duke and a Big Ten Conference slate.
Maybe this victory, thanks to another late-game hero play by Ayo Dosunmu, is exactly what they needed. Maybe it shows Illinois isn't the Top 10 team that they and everybody thought they deserved to be at the start of this season. How they recover from this near-loss will be what answered these questions.
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Illinois Fighting Illini guard Da'Monte Williams (20) hits a three point shot during the second half against the Ohio Bobcats at the State Farm Center.
Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports
Player of the Game: Da'Monte Williams- And who are we to argue with Underwood after he declared the Peoria native the player of this game. Despite getting in early foul trouble, Williams produced his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds including a key 3-point shot to give the Illini a 74-73 lead with 35 seconds left in the game. Williams, who had been previously shy at showcasing any offensive production in his first two years at Illinois, is now 15 of 26 from beyond the 3-point arc dating back to the Maryland home game on Feb. 24, 2020.
Williams was also key on the defensive end by allowing Illinois to let the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder to guard Ohio's four-man Ben Vander Plas in the post and get consistent stops late in this contest.
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Backcourt
Illinois: C
Ohio: B-plus
Illinois didn't get much help from anybody who wasn't named Ayo Dosunmu or Da'Monte Williams. Trent Frazier finished with a disappointing eight points and Adam Miller was just 4 of 11 shooting. Ohio's Jason Preston is an NBA-caliber guard and once Ben Roderick gets settled on this team, they're going to outshoot and outscore a lot of teams in the Mid-American Conference.
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Frontcourt
Illinois: D-plus
Ohio: C
Ohio outscored Illinois on points in the paint 36-34 and that just shouldn't happen with Illinois having Kofi Cockburn and Giorgi Bezhanishvili in the middle. Vander Plas finished with 20 points mostly on old-school backdowns of Bezhanishvili or a mismatch coming from a screen-and-roll action.
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Bench
Illinois: D-plus
Ohio: D-plus
Neither team got much production at all from its bench but Underwood was able to try out the Giorgi-Kofi frontcourt lineup and said that element needs to be used more in future games.
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Ohio Bobcats guard Jason Preston (0) controls the ball against Illinois Fighting Illini guard Da'Monte Williams (20) and center Kofi Cockburn (21) during the second half at the State Farm Center.
Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports
Overall
Illinois: C
Ohio: B
Illinois escaped with a win and have a lot of lessons to learn off this near-upset. Ohio probably leaves Champaign thinking they should be 3-0 with a huge resume win in non-conference play under its belt. If Illinois' bigs don't figure out how to guard screen-and-roll action better, then Baylor, Duke and any other name-brand program they see in the near future will expose them for a very flawed team in the Associated Press Top 10.