Da'Monte Begins With 'D' - Williams' Defense Leads Illini To Victory

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The final minute of defensive possessions is a perfect example of why Da’Monte Williams starts and plays a majority of minutes for Illinois this season.

The junior guard had a steal, block and a rebound in each of Minnesota’s final critical possessions to ensure the No. 19 Illinois escape with a 59-51 win Thursday night in front of a sold-out State Farm Center.

For the eighth consecutive game, Williams failed to find the scoring column but it may be safe to say his head couldn’t care less after his defensive and hustle plays led Illini to its seventh straight Big Ten Conference win.

"When you look at our stat sheets a lot of the times, you may not see the most glaring numbers for Da'Monte and I told him in the locker room that I won't kiss my wife tonight because I'm going to kiss you and I kissed him right on the forehead."

Illinois (16-5, 8-2) was able to extend the longest active winning streak in the Big Ten Conference with the win and moved its record to 12-1 inside its home arena this season.

The Peoria native had a plus-14 in the box score Thursday night that also included seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.

"He takes pride in his defense and takes pride in his rebounding," Illinois center Kofi Cockburn said. "He's the guy that sticks to his assignment and makes sure his guy doesn't go off. We need a guy like that who brings energy all of the time and we basically feed off it."

In the final minute of action, when Illinois was only up by a single bucket, Williams took the ball away from Minnesota center Daniel Oturu in the lane, blocked a perimeter attempt at a 3-pointer and grabbed a loose ball rebound to put the Illini victory in a safe place.

"He's bought into his role," Underwood said. "That's why we're good. That's why we've been able to win some games. It's the identity of roles and guys being great at their roles, not being good at their roles but trying to become great at them."

Minnesota (11-10, 5-6) was led by Oturu as the projected first-round pick finished with a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds. Illinois was able to counter Oturu’s interior presence with 13 points and 10 rebounds (his ninth double-double of the 2019-20 season) by Cockburn.

Illinois was able to pick up another of what head coach Brad Underwood classifies as “an ugly win” as they managed to come out on top in a game where they made just 33 percent of its field goals.

"(Illinois) has got length, they've got talent, Kofi Cockburn is one of the best bigs in the country and obviously have big-time potential," Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino said after the game.

Andres Feliz finished with a team-high 17 points off the bench.

Illinois will now head back on the road when they face No. 18 Iowa on Super Bowl Sunday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena for noon tip on FS1.