Illinois Basketball: 5 takeaways from the Illini loss to Wisconsin part two

The Illinois basketball team, once again, dropped a game against the Wisconsin Badgers.

Illinois needed to win this game to keep their NIT hopes alive. It was a home contest against the worst Badgers team I have seen in a very long time. But, the Illini couldn’t pull it off and now move to 12-13 overall and 2-10 in the Big Ten.

The Illini were actually in this game for most of the night. They had it tied at 12-12 with 12:56 left in the first half. They even took the lead a few times. But, Wisconsin kept fighting back and went ahead at halftime 36-33 after a great three-pointer made by Trent Frazier to narrow the margin.

I thought Frazier was going to carry this Illini team to a victory after taking momentum into halftime. Illinois ended up coming out of the locker room hot as well. They even took a slight lead a few minutes into the second half. The Badgers fought back, though. The lead continued to change until the 10:51 mark when Wisconsin took the lead 54-52 and never looked back.

The Badgers ended up winning the game 78-69. This was a depressing ending to what was a good game. Illinois did all they could with what they had. Here are my five takeaways from the Illini loss to Wisconsin part two.