The Illinois basketball team took another loss on Wednesday night despite hanging in there for most of the game.
The game against Wisconsin started off pretty close. Illinois would match the scores by the Badgers throughout most of the first half. With 10 minutes to go in the first half, the Illini were only down 18-16 to Wisconsin. The Badgers tried to pull away going up 27-22, but Illinois came fighting back. We actually had the lead 30-27 with 1:46 to go until halftime. Wisconsin went on a 5-0 run to end the half with a 32-30 lead.
Illinois and Wisconsin both started the second half cold. The first points were scored by the Badgers almost three minutes into the second half. Illinois kept the game close, though. The score was tied with 9:37 to go in the game at 49-49. That is when the Badgers started to score. Illinois couldn’t keep up and with 2:34 left, the Illini found themselves down by 11 points. We did get it back to single digits for a moment, but Wisconsin was too much. The final horn blew and the Badgers won the game 72-60.
Here are five observations from the Illini loss to Wisconsin.