A Top 15 matchup took place on Black Friday as Illinois and UConn faced off at the SentinelOne Showdown at Madison Square Garden.
The Huskies are currently in a tough stretch of games, facing six teams in the KenPom Top 40 over 27 days. Games like this one, along with others, help build a strong resume for March as UConn aims for its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Illinois has also started its challenging run of games, taking on three ranked teams and five Power 5 Conference teams in the next three weeks.
In front of 16,154 mostly UConn fans, the Huskies moved to 6-1 on the young season after a 74-61 hard-fought win over Illinois on Friday afternoon at The Garden.
UConn was on fire, shooting 6-of-8, including a perfect 5-of-5 from the field before the first media timeout, leading 15-12 at the 14-minute mark of the first half. After the timeout, Illinois faced a scoring drought of over three minutes as UConn kept up the pace, led by Solo Ball, who scored 11 points in the opening eight minutes.
The Fighting Illini tried to shoot their way out of the deficit as Ben Humrichous and Kylan Boswell each hit threes to cut the UConn lead to under double digits. Illinois reduced the gap to six points, but UConn responded with an 8-0 run and Illinois struggled to make baskets as the Huskies pushed their lead back to double digits, tightening their defense going into the under-seven-minute media timeout.
The game settled into a flow in the backend of the first half as UConn maintained its double-digit lead while Illinois was unable to match the Huskies’ three-point shooting, which was the difference in the opening 20 minutes. UConn faced its own drought down the stretch of the half, going 1-of-8 from the field and not scoring for over three minutes, but Illinois could not capitalize as the Fighting Illini went into the half down 43-32. Ball led UConn with 13, while Boswell also scored 13 points for Illinois.
The second half started very sloppily with poor shooting from both teams as the opening minutes were slow. It also didn’t help that referees called nine fouls in the first 3:16 of the half, slowing the game significantly. Illinois did not make a single field goal (0-of-9) during the early part of the half as UConn slowly continued to build its lead. Boswell finally made the Fighting Illini’s first field goal of the second half with a three at the 12:40 mark of the second half. That was answered by a three-pointer by UConn’s Malachi Smith to push the Husky lead to 17.
As the second half continued, Illinois was unable to withstand UConn’s defensive onslaught, struggling to shoot from the field, with 11 of its 16 points through 12 minutes coming from the foul line. However, UConn found itself in an offensive slump as Illinois quietly went on an 11-0 run, cutting the UConn lead to 64-54 with six minutes remaining.
As the game approached the final media timeout, the Huskies held a 10-point lead as Illinois tried to make up for a highly unproductive first half. Tomislav Ivisic’s three cut the lead to seven, but Illinois was unable to prevent two UConn offensive rebounds on the ensuing possession. On UConn’s third attempt, Smith hit a deep circus three and was fouled as the four-play put the Huskies up by 11 and put the game out of reach.
“I didn’t know the shot clock was off, so I just looked at the sideline, and everybody told me, ‘Shoot it!’ And he fouled me, so I tried to concentrate at least a little bit, make it hit the rim, and it went in. You know, glad they reviewed it, and they counted it,” Smith said.
Ball finished with 15 points, while Smith had 14 points and nine assists for UConn in the win, their second against a Top 25 team this season. The Huskies finished with an impressive 19 assists on 26 field goals as they led start to finish.
“Malachi (Smith) made a huge difference,” said UConn head coach Dan Hurley. “To hit that crazy three there to get it back to doubles when we were wavering, he’s the story of the game.”
Boswell led Illinois with 25 points and nine rebounds, and Ivisic picked up a double-double, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Illinois shot 6-of-26 from the field (24 percent) in the second half, including 2-of-16 from beyond the arc, in the loss.
“That was probably number one on the scouting report; limit them from the three-point line,” said UConn forward Alex Karaban. “They got lineups out there where all five guys can shoot threes, so it was making sure we scramble for each other, help each other out, and, for the most part, we did a good job.”
For Illinois, the struggle was keeping up with UConn the entire game and head coach Brad Underwood knows they have work to do in the future.
“We have to figure out how to win and be tough,” Underwood said. “Winning is really hard when the ball doesn’t go in.”
