The Illinois basketball team dropped another game on Sunday, this time it was to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Illinois didn’t start this game off on the right foot. They got down 5-0 within the first two minutes. They did manage to tie the game up at 6-6, but then a scoring drought happened for the Illini. Iowa started to put the ball in the hoop as well. That is not a good combination.
The next time Illinois would score was a Trent Frazier layup at the 10:39 mark in the first half. This brought the score back to 18-8 in favor of Iowa. Illinois tried to fight the entire first half, but the Hawkeyes continued to keep their distance. Iowa got the lead up to 15 points with 5:29 left in the first half. Despite a little surge to get the score back to single digits, Illinois gave up some big baskets and entered the halftime locker room down 39-24.
Iowa dominated the second half as well. The first 20-point lead for the Hawkeyes came at the 13:46 mark where they went up 63-42 on a Luke Garza bucket. Illinois did make a slight push to get the score to only a 17-point deficit, but Iowa was too much. The Hawkeyes ended up winning the game, 95-71.
Here are five observations from the Illini loss to Iowa.