LIVE BLOG: FINAL - No. 18 Iowa 72, No. 19 Illinois 65

IOWA CITY, Iowa. -- Welcome to the Carver-Hawkeye Arena where No. 19 Illinois (16-5, 8-2 in Big Ten Conference) will try for its eighth straight win by playing at Iowa (15-6, 6-4).

I'm LOOKING LIVE...at the playing floor in Iowa City, Iowa for the first time, as we're less than an hour from the opening tip.

NOTE: Please join us as we live-blog and discuss the Illini exhibition game here in our weekly Illini Gameday Open Thread. Dive into the conversation — it's easy — by simply going to the top right of the redesigned site and click the follow button.

You can log in with Facebook or Google and either way, it's free. That's right...IT'S FREE. From there, sound off in the comment section and share your reactions and observations with our staff and fellow members of the Illini Now/Sports Illustrated community as we keep you up to date of the game in real-time.

-------------------

Game 22: No. 19 Illinois at No. 18 Iowa

Date/Time/Place: Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020: Noon CST, Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa.

Capacity: 15,056

Records: Illinois 16-5, 8-2 in Big Ten; 12-21, 7-13 in Big Ten Conference in 2018-19. Iowa 15-6, 6-4 in Big Ten; 23-12, 10-10 in Big Ten Conference in 2018-19.

Line: Iowa by 5

Series notes: In its last trip to Iowa City, the Hawkeyes rolled to a blowout win behind a historic shooting performance. Iowa shot an arena record 68 percent, including 15-of-21 from 3-point range for 71.4 percent accuracy. Illinois owns an 85-75 advantage in the all-time series but Iowa leads 55-22 in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Sunday begins a stretch of five-straight Quad 1 games and five in a row versus ranked foes for the Illini. Iowa has won the last four games against Illinois, each on a different court. The Hawkeyes beat the Illini in Champaign and New York in 2018, and Iowa City and Chicago in 2019.

TV: FS1 - Wayne Randazzo (PBP), Nick Bahe (analyst)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (PBP), Deon Thomas (analyst) - The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, Sirius/XM 195 and at FightingIllini.com.

-------------------------

Uniform update: It appears Illinois is going with the blue uniforms today. They're 1-2 in those uniforms this season.

-----------------

NOTE: No changes to the Illinois starting lineup - Ayo, Trent, Williams, Giorgi and Kofi. Iowa going with Joe Toussaint, CJ Fredrick, Connor McCaffery, Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza.

---------------------

MEDIA TIMEOUT - 15:50 left in 1st - No. 18 Iowa 7, No. 19 Illinois 5 - A charge by Trent Frazier and a moving screen by Garza has McCaffery hot at the refs already. Illinois has been able to survive 2 of 9 start by forcing four turnovers.

--------------------

MEDIA TIMEOUT - 11:43 left in 1st - No. 19 Illinois 11, No. 18 Iowa 10 - Andres Feliz on a 6-0 run by himself to give Illini the lead. Hawkeyes are 3 of 10 from the field with five turnovers and only down one. Cockburn with two rebounds but Illinois going with smaller lineup right now.

----------------------

MEDIA TIMEOUT - 7:44 left in 1st - No. 19 Illinois 15, No. 18 Iowa 15 - Iowa's ability to switch defenses out of timeouts has really stifled the Illini offense and shooting early in this game. McCaffery already with two 3-point shots. Feliz and Dosunmu with six each.

--------------------

IOWA TIMEOUT - 5:17 left in 1st - No. 19 Illinois 23, No. 18 Iowa 15 - Dosunmu gets his second foul but Illini are on a 8-0 run without him on the floor. Alan Griffin is back (2 of 4 from 3pt).

---------------------

ILLINI TIMEOUT - 1:20 left in 1st - No. 18 Iowa 28, No. 19 Illinois 27 - Garza acting like the Big Ten Player of the Year during that two-minute stretch to give Iowa the lead. Illinois going to likely survive seven minutes without Ayo.

--------------------

HALFTIME - No. 19 Illinois 31, No. 18 Iowa 30 - Illinois gets a late basket from Kipper Nichols to lead at half. Illini are 12-1 this season when leading at half. Feliz had eight points but seven different players had a bucket. Iowa's Luka Garza has kept the Hakweyes in striking distance at home.

Analysis: If I'm Brad Underwood, I'm thrilled. Ayo Dosunmu was lost for seven minutes due to foul trouble. Trent Frazier has struggled to shoot from the perimeter (1 of 7 and 1 of 5 from 3-point). Kofi Cockburn hasn't been able to find a consistent post game because of Iowa's shifting defenses. Luka Garza went off for 11 points in the half. And...Illini are up one. The return of Alan Griffin has stabilized Illinois' bench scoring with Feliz and Illinois was able to outscore Iowa 18-0 off the bench and 18-12 in the paint.

-------------------------

MEDIA TIMEOUT - 15:47 left in 1st - No. 19 Illinois 38, No. 18 Iowa 37 -Normally a slower pace and a lower score would favor Illinois in this matchup but it feels like Illinois is playing Iowa's pace. Cockburn has three fouls.

-----------------------

MEDIA TIMEOUT - 11:44 left in 1st - No. 18 Iowa 45, No. 19 Illinois 42 -Garza has nearly single-handily gotten his team in the bonus for the remainder of this game. Ayo has only two points in this half and Cockburn hasn't been much of a factor either.

--------------------

MEDIA TIMEOUT - 7:30 left in 1st - No. 19 Illinois 50, No. 18 Iowa 50 - It's hard to interpret how critical Andres Feliz has been for the Illini today. Senior guard has 10 points, two steals and has played solid defense all afternoon.

---------------

ILLINI TIMEOUT - 5:28 left in 1st - No. 19 Illinois 59, No. 18 Iowa 55 - Feliz with a HUGE putback to give him a team-high 14 points today. Illinois is shooting worse than Iowa right now and 1-4 this season when that happens. Could Illini steal this one with a late-game Ayo run?

-----------------

MEDIA TIMEOUT - 3:17 left in 1st - No. 18 Iowa 64, No. 19 Illinois 62 - Garza is one rebound from a double-double (22 points and nine rebounds). This, historically, has been the time Ayo completely takes over so it'll be interesting how Iowa comes out defensively.

----------------

NOTE: We had some post-game words between Illinois assistant coaches 'Chin' Coleman and Jamal Walker with Iowa head coach Fran McCaffrey

-----------------