Terrence Shannon's 24 Points Leads Illinois To Blowout Victory Against Southern
The Fighting Illini came into the night as 25.5-point favorites over Southern University and ended up covering the spread dominating the Jaguars with a final score of 88-60.
Terrence Shannon led the way with a season-high 24 points.
"Games get hard when you're up 30," Illini coach Brad Underwood said. "I wish we would have finished better. I thought we turned it over a little bit. Again, this team has won at UNLV, and this team has played some folks awfully close. I thought we handled our business, and on to the next."
While the Illini showed themselves to be the better team, there was still cause for concern for when the Illini face their future ranked matchups against FAU at Madison Square Garden and Tennessee in Knoxville.
It is important to note that the Illini were once again without senior forward Coleman Hawkins for the second straight game. Hawkins has been a crucial part of this team, and other players such as Dain Dainja and Amani Hansberry have been forced to step into roles they would not otherwise have.
However, let’s start with the positives. Offensively, the Illini were able to establish Dainja early, which prevented another slow offensive start as seen in the games against Valpo, Oakland, and Eastern Illinois. Also, prior to hurting his foot, redshirt freshman guard Niccolò Moretti showcased his ability to read the floor and get his teammates involved. The Illini may have found their future floor general tonight. After the game coach Brad Underwood indicated that the timeline of the injury is still unknown.
There are many aspects of the game the Illini need to tune up before their difficult non-conference games, and the gauntlet that is the Big Ten. They had 21 turnovers, with many of them careless and sloppy, mistakes that can’t be made down the stretch in Big Ten play and in March.
Also, the Illini need to shoot better from behind the arc and at the foul line. While it can be chalked up to a bad shooting night, the Illini shot 22.7 percent from deep and 64.7 percent at the line. Shooting was a massive problem for the Illini down the stretch last season, and while seemingly improved this season, the Illini have had streaky nights of good and bad shooting performances.
Now the Illini are preparing for a matchup with Western Illinois on Black Friday, looking to clean things up and get guys healthy.
Sam King is a contributor to Illini Now. He can be reached at sjking258@gmail.com.