Game 10: No. 18 Illinois 69, Indiana 60 - Grades & Player of the Game

Player of the Game: Ayo Dosunmu - With nine minutes and 47 seconds left in the game, Illinois' preseason All-America guard was cruising to a pedestrian game with 12 points and his team was down by five at home to an average Indiana team. Fear not Illini fans, over that period of time, Dosunmu had 18 points and the No. 18 Illini secured a key league win.

What Ayo Dosunmu proved Saturday was when arguably one of the country's best perimeter players wants to take over a game and not make it look like he's hogging the ball, he can absolutely do that. And the scary thing is that there's not much any defensive scheme can do about that accepted fact.

"You can double him, you can do whatever you want on him and he’ll make the right pass, the right play and then you give him a crease and he’ll make the layup or make free throws when he gets fouled,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. “I knew (three years ago) Ayo was a hard-rocking dude. I know how much his competitive spirit is. (Closing games) is what those guys do. To say you get tired of seeing it, you don’t.”

NOTEWORTHY: Illinois went on a game-changing 14-0 run over a 3:13 stretch of the second half (9:19-6:06) to flip a five-point deficit (44-49) to a nine-point lead (58-49). Dosunmu had 11 of Illinois’ points during the stretch.

Dosunmu finished with a game-high 30 points on 11-of 17 FG including 4-of-5 from three. It marked his second straight 30-point game after also dropping 30 in Wednesday’s win at Penn State.

Dosunmu is the first Illini player with consecutive 30-point games since Kevin Turner on Dec. 30, 1997 (32 at UCLA) and Jan. 3, 1998 (35 vs. Indiana).

Dosunmu is one of only three players in the nation to have three 30-plus point games this season. Iowa's Luka Garza has five and Minnesota's Marcus Carr also has three. Dosunmu’s three 30+-point games are the most by an Illini player since Malcolm Hill had four in 2015-16.

Kofi Cockburn is now tied for third in the nation in double-doubles with six, one away from the nation lead held by Malachi Smith (Chattanooga) and Jordan Goodwin (Saint Louis). Cockburn recorded his third career game of 15-plus points and 15-plus rebounds. The only other Illini to have a 15-15 game in the last 10 years is NBA veteran Meyers Leonard (12/19/2011 vs. Cornell, 19 pts/16 Reb).

Da’Monte Williams was 2-of-3 from 3-point range, dropping his season 3-point percentage to 69.6%. Among NCAA players with 20+ three-point attempts, Williams leads the nation in 3-point percentage.

Illinois out-rebounded the Hoosiers by 12 (40-28), owning a double-digit margin on the glass for the third time in four Big Ten games.

Backcourt

Illinois: B-plus

Indiana: B-minus

For the first 30 minutes of this game, the grades were basically flipped as Ayo Dosunmu held back from establishing himself on the offensive end and Indiana guard Armaan Franklin was the best perimeter player on the floor. Over the last 10 minutes, Dosunmu added 18 points and was the biggest reason the Illini were able to turn a five-point deficit into a nine-point victory. Andre Curbelo still needs to work on his defense but in every game, he's providing a spark off the Illini's bench. The reason this grade isn't an 'A' is the complete zero factor of Adam Miller (0 points, 0 for 4 3pt) and the non-factor of Trent Frazier on the offensive end but the senior was able to affect Franklin's effectiveness in the final segments on the defensive end.

Frontcourt

Illinois: B

Indiana: C

In a matchup of arguably the two best underclassmen bigs in the Big Ten Conference, Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn contributed 15 points and 15 rebounds while also making the afternoon for Trayce Jackson-Davis miserable. Jackson-Davis, who finished with a season-low 11 points and eight rebounds, missed his first six shots and all of them were with the Illini’s 7-foot, 290-pound center in front of him. Cockburn was anything but a non-factor on both ends of the floor. Jackson-Davis allowed the physicality to affect his game throughout the contest and could never get a consistent flow because of Cockburn's size. The combination of Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Cockburn together worked perfectly again late in this game. The junior forward from the country of Georgia had seven points, three rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes.

Bench

Illinois: B

Indiana: D-minus

Bezhanishvili and Curbelo lead this second unit for the Illini but the nine minutes for Jacob Grandison shouldn't be discounted Saturday as the Holy Cross transfer provided length on the defensive end and rebounding support for a team that was struggling with playing its fourth game in a 11-day stretch.

Indiana went with a different starting lineup as they went with Trey Galloway, a 6-foot-4 freshman guard, in its starting lineup over 6-foot-1 Rob Phinisee in the second start of the season for Galloway. Galloway ended with just four points and four rebounds in 32 minutes while Phinisee had just four points and missed each of his two 3-point shots.

Overall

Illinois: B

Indiana: C

This was an average performance for the Illini but the presence of Ayo Dosunmu serves as extra credit for this squad. The junior guard from Chicago knew this game would be more of a boxing match than a free-flowing basketball game of couple nights earlier at Penn State. Dosunmu recorded 30 points in both of those styles. With No. 11 active for the Illini, Underwood's squad is never out of a game and the preseason All-American knows it.

"As I told our guys, it’s nice to be able to win games in a lot of different fashions,” Underwood said. “I’m just glad we had the best player on the court at the end of the game in Ayo Dosunmu.”