Hoosiers Suffer Record-Breaking Blowout Loss to Illinois, Fall 94-69

Indiana gave up a school-record 60 points in the first half and got blown out for the second straight game on Tuesday night, losing to Illinois 94-69.

Indiana's Trey Galloway (32) looks to shoot past Illinois' Kasparas Jakucionis (32) during Illinois' 94-69 win on Tuesday. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — They say if you live long enough, you'll see everything. That just might be true.

In the long and glorious history of Indiana basketball, Illinois did something Tuesday night that had never been done in 125 years of Hoosiers hoops. The Fighting Illini scored 60 points — that's correct, SIXTY! — in the first half and went on to roll the Hoosiers 94-69.

It was the second straight blowout loss for the Hoosiers, who got ripped 85-60 at Iowa on Saturday. This was more surprising though because it came inside the iconic Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, where the Hoosiers had won all 11 games this year, and 13 in a row dating back to last February.

"We didn't play well. We were awful,'' Indiana coach Mike Woodson said. "We competed in the second half, but the damage was already done in the first half.''

The previous record for points allowed in a half in Bloomington, as much as we can tell, was the 56 points Ohio State scored in a 93-81 win over Indiana in 2009 during Tom Crean's first year as Indiana coach. The school record for points allowed in the first half was 59 at Michigan State on March 2, 2008 under interim coach Dan Dakich.

It was so bad that the Hoosiers were booed off the court at halftime — and Assembly Hall was half empty by the time the second half started. Fan frustration is at an all-time high in the Mike Woodson era. There were several ''Fire Woodson'' chants from the student section.

“Well again, I love our fans. I respect our fans,'' Woodson said. "But it’s up to me to get our players to play at a high level. That’s my job, and I’m going to continue to work in that area and hope our fans will stay in there with us.”

Kasparas Jakucionis, a 6-foot-6 freshman from Lithuania, was a huge difference-maker for Illinois. The talented point guard, who missed their last two games with a forearm injury, had 19 first-half points, including eight in the first two-plus minutes.

He sparked a 10-0 that allowed Illinois to pull away, and then they whacked Indiana with a 25-10 scoring burst to take a 45-20 lead at the 6:59 mark. The lead hit 30 at one point and the Illini went to the locker room with a 60-32 lead.

"I think we missed Kasparas for a couple games. It was really nice to see him back,'' Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. "He's just different. I don't know how to describe him."

Indiana tried to make a game of it in the second half, cutting the lead to 16 at the 13:30 mark. But that would be as close as they would get. They would miss their next five shots and be back down by 22. The margin hit 30 again a couple of occasions.

Indiana didn't its first three-pointer until the 5:54 mark of the second half when Trey Galloway knocked one down. They had missed their first 13 attempts, the second-longest streak of the season. They missed 19 straight against Winthrop on Dec. 29. The Hoosiers made three more threes in garbage time, including a Galloway three with six seconds to go. They were 4-18 on the night.

Illinois had its way against the porous Indiana defense, committing only six turnovers all night. They made 11 threes — including nine before Indiana finally made one — and outrebounded Indiana 51-37. Illinois had 14 offensive rebounds. It was the largest margin of victory for Illinois in a game at Bloomington.

This was back-to-back 25-point losses and the late flurry of threes helped avoid the worst home loss in school history. That was to Wisconsin by 32 points (78-46) on Feb. 25, 2010 in Crean's second year, which ended with a 10-21 record. The 94 points was the most allowed in regulation in an Assembly Hall game. The previous record was 93 in the aforementioned 2009 game with Ohio State.

The most energy Indiana showed all night camed at 2:24 mark of the second half. Luke Goode, who used to play at Illinois, got whistled for a boxing out foul and he went to the floor with an Illinois player. Myles Rice jumped in and some pushing ensued. Indiana center Oumar Ballo jumped into the fray and shoved Tomislav Ivisic — which got him ejected with a Flagrant 2 foul. Rice got a technical, as did Illinois' Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Ivisic.

"I don't condone that by any means, but sometimes things get out of hand and that stuff happens,'' Woodson said. The Big Ten will determine if he gets suspended at all. Indiana's next game is Friday at Ohio State. "We'll see where it goes from there.''

Indiana is now 13-5 and 4-3 in Big Ten play; Illinois is 13-4 and 5-2.. The Hoosiers have a rough patch of 11 straight Quad-1 games and they've been embarrassed in the first two. Ballo was the team's leading scorer with 16 points. Goode had 13 points, Rice 12 and Galloway 10.

"We can't let this be a snowball effect,'' Woodson said. "Like I said, we've got a long way to go in this Big Ten. Do I think we're good enough to win? Yeah, I do. I just got to get us to believe that and keep pushing these guys in the right direction.''

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• HOOSIERS, ILLINI SCUFFLE: Luke Goode’s hard block out on Illinois’ Tomislav Ivisic ignited a baseline confrontation between the two teams late in Indiana's 94-69 loss that resulted in an ejection for Indiana’s Oumar Ballo. CLICK HERE.

• ILLINOIS PERSPECTIVE: Illinois talks about its big win over Indiana in enemy territory. CLICK HERE.

• WHAT WOODSON SAID: Mike Woodson's comments to the media after Indiana's 94-69 loss to Illinois on Tuesday. CLICK HERE.