The Illinois basketball team walked out of the State Farm Center victorious after a scare from the Ohio Bobcats.
The Fighting Illini came out of Friday’s contest with a 77-75 win over Ohio, but it did not come easy. The Bobcats showed up to the game with an abundance of energy, giving the Illini all the trouble in the world from the first tip all the way until the final buzzer.
Here are four observations from Friday’s hard-fought, neck-and-neck battle.
1. The Illini could not stop Jason Preston
Jason Preston was doing it all for the Ohio Bobcats. No player on the Illini could slow down the junior guard, as he finished the game with a superb 31-point performance.
Preston got his 31 points by shooting an impressive 13-of-23 from the floor, which comes out to 56.5-percent. The Ohio guard also shot 75-percent from beyond the arc, hitting three of his four three-point attempts. He would additionally record 8 assists, 6 rebounds, and a steal.
Preston was especially dangerous down the final stretch, as he would score or assists on 18 of the Bobcats’ final 26 points, including a bucket that gave Ohio a 75-74 lead with seven seconds remaining in the game.