Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini win over Indiana

The Illinois basketball team traveled to Assembly Hall to take on their rivals, the Indiana Hoosiers, on Saturday.

The No.18 ranked Illini came into this game as winners of three games in a row and healthy for the second straight game. After a slugfest in the first half, Indiana took a two-point lead into halftime. Illinois outscored Indiana in the second half 40-21 en route to a 74-57 win.

Here are some grades from the Illinois basketball win over Indiana.

Offense: A

Illinois’ offense was up and down against the Hoosiers. Scoring 34 points in the first half was solid, however, they only made nine shots from the floor. The Illini were propped up from the 17 free throw attempts in the first half.

The offense was led by Trent Fraizer in this one. This was great to see after he had been struggling shooting the ball the last two games. But in this matchup, he was lights out, scoring 23 points on 8-of-11 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range. He also had four assists to only one turnover.

Kofi Cockburn is now 4-0 in his career against Indiana. Kofi had 17 points and eight rebounds. Alfonso Plummer struggled from the field going 3-of-10, but he got it done at the free-throw line hitting 6-of-7. He also hit a couple of big threes down the stretch for the Illini to pull away late. The Illini shot 10-of-23 from behind the arc against Indiana.

Defense: A

The Illini defense was great against Indiana led by the work of Da’Monte Williams and Fraizer. I feel like a broken record saying this in every article, but it is just the truth.

The work Williams did on Race Thomson while being undersized was outstanding. He held him to 5-of-13 from the field and was glued to his hip throughout the entirety of the game. Williams also had a team-high three blocks.

Kofi shut down Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had six points and six rebounds in just 23 minutes as he battled foul trouble in the first half. The Illini held Indiana to 35% from the field and just 21 points in the second half.

Overall: A

This was an outstanding road win for the Illini to put on their resume for the NCAA tournament. The Hoosiers were 13-1 at home heading into this one with notable wins over Purdue and Ohio State. This was a game in which they didn’t get much from their bench, as they only had eight points from the reserves.

Illinois improved to 17-5 overall, and even more importantly improved to 9-2 in the conference, heading into a Tuesday night rematch against Purdue who is just one game behind the Illini in the Big Ten.

The Illini look for payback after they lost on 96-88 in double overtime back on January 17. This would be a huge stepping stone towards a conference championship if they were to win. It is a huge game Tuesday night, and I personally can’t wait.