Illinois Basketball: 5 takeaways from the Illini loss to Penn State

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LINCOLN, NE – JANUARY 15: Illinois head coach Brad Underwood is yelling at Illinois guard Trent Frazier (1) for a foul during the first half of a college basketball game Monday, January 15th at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska defeated Illinois 64 to 63. (Photo by John Peterson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Illinois basketball team had a perfect opportunity to get back to .500 with a win over Penn State but failed to do so on Sunday night.

This was one of the more embarrassing losses this season with the Illini falling to the Nittany Lions at home by 22 points. It wasn’t a bad game for most of the night, though. Things really started to fall apart in the second half.

Illinois started the game off well, actually. Through the first 10 minutes of the first half, the Illini were in the lead 21-15. Penn State then pushed back and went on a little run that saw them take the lead 24-23 with 7:51 left in the first half. The game went back and forth the rest of the time and the Nittany Lions took a halftime lead 37-36.

Despite a bad end to the first half, Illinois had a chance to jump on Penn State in the second half. That didn’t happen, though. Both teams failed to score until the 16:41 mark. The Nittany Lions went on a 12-0 run after that point and took the lead by 13 points. Illinois would get the margin back to nine once but Penn State was just too much. The Illini ended up losing the game 74-52.

Here are my five takeaways from the Illini loss to Penn State.

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