Illinois Basketball: 5 takeaways from the Illini loss to Iowa

The Illinois basketball team dropped another heartbreaker on Thursday night against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Iowa took a 4-2 lead a few minutes into the game and that was the only lead they had the entire first half. The Illini charged ahead and was making every shot they could. They were playing great basketball and even extended the lead over the Hawkeyes by 20 points with only 3:53 remaining in the first half.

Illinois finished the first half with a 13 point lead, though. They let some of the game slip away and Iowa took advantage of that momentum in the second half.

The Hawkeyes came out firing in the second half and got the margin down to three points just two minutes in. Illinois kept fighting but Iowa had too much momentum going. They ended up tying the game 66-66 with 12:06 left in the contest.

The game continued to go back and forth for the rest of the night until Iowa took a five-point lead with 1:44 left in the game. This is when I thought things were looking bleak. Illinois didn’t have anything going and Iowa was on fire. But, Trent Frazier came to the rescue.

Frazier ended up hitting a three-pointer to bring it back to two points. Some free throws were made by both teams down the stretch but Illinois got the ball back with four seconds remaining and down three points. Frazier brought the ball up the court and hit a game-tying three-pointer to send it to overtime.

Illinois couldn’t hold on in the extra time and dropped their fifth straight conference game. There are so many issues I had with this game. Here are my five takeaways from the Illini loss to Iowa.