Illinois Basketball: 3 observations from the Illini win over Wisconsin

The Illinois basketball team had a somewhat surprising win over the Wisconsin Badgers on Wednesday night.

Coming into this game, Illinois had lost 15 straight matchups with Wisconsin. Going on the road usually doesn’t bode well for the Orange and Blue. But we came to play on hump day.

This game was close for pretty much the entirety. By the 10 minute mark in the first half, Wisconsin had a slim lead 14-13. The game continued to go back and forth. The Badgers managed to break a 21-21 tie with less than five minutes to go in the first half to make the score 23-21. Wisconsin then went on a little run to increase the lead to six points at halftime.

Wisconsin came out of halftime firing. Kobe King was just sensational for the Badgers scoring eight points in the first four minutes. But the Illini weren’t lying down. We were matching bucket for bucket against Wisconsin.

I believe the biggest lead the Badgers would hold in the second half was seven points. Illinois started to make a charge after that, though. With 3:22 to go in the game, the Illini tied it up at 63-63. The game went back and forth again until a big three-pointer by Ayo Dosunmu extended Illinois’ lead to four points with less than a minute remaining. Wisconsin couldn’t hit a bucket at the end, and Illinois came out with a 71-70 victory.

Here are three observations from the Illini win over Wisconsin.