Illinois Basketball: 4 keys for the Illini to beat the Ohio Bobcats

The Illinois basketball team rounds out their four-team round-robin tournament on Friday with the Ohio Bobcats.

Illinois dominated the first two games of the event, but Ohio is a different cat, pun intended. They are a more quality team than Chicago State and North Carolina A&T, but we should beat the Bobcats into the ground.

Here are four keys for the Illini to beat the Ohio Bobcats.

1. Contain Ohio from the three-point line

Illinois hasn’t exactly played two juggernauts to start the 2020-21 campaign. But, on Friday, the Illini will be facing a more competent team in the Ohio Bobcats.

One of Ohio’s strong points is their ability to hit shots from three-point range. Overall, the scoring has been pretty consistent for the Bobcats, as they have scored 84 points in both of their games to start the season. A large chunk of the 84 points they are score come from the three-point arc.

In the win over Chicago State on Wednesday, Ohio was 8-of-19 from three-point range, which comes out to 42.1-percent. If you can shoot over 40-percent from distance as a team, then you are going to win some games.

Ohio’s shooting percentage dropped against North Carolina A&T, but they still were lights out in the victory. The Bobcats shot 13-of-34 from three-point range against the Aggies, which comes out to 38.2-percent.

With Ohio shooting so well, something has to give in the game against Illinois. The Illini are a top 30 team in the nation in opponent three-point shooting percentage, as Chicago State and North Carolina A&T both combined shooting 20.9-percent from distance.

If Illinois can contain Ohio’s three-point shooting and hold them to somewhere around 30-percent, then I think we win this game fairly easily. Three-point shooting will be a big key in this victory, though.