Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini win against Chattanooga

The Illinois basketball team traveled to Pittsburgh for their opening-round game of the NCAA Tournament.

The Illini matched up against the No. 13 seed Chattanooga and boy, did the Mocs give Illinois everything they could handle.

Chattanooga jumped out to a 20-6 lead as the Illini seemed sluggish and a little tight early. Illinois battled back after being down 14 points in the first half to only be down 33-29 at halftime.

The Mocs came out in the second half and punched the Illini in the mouth again as they went on a 7-0 run. Illinois fought back with some great defense down the stretch to take a one-point lead after Alfonso Plummer hit two free throws. Malachi Smith missed a 15-foot jump shot at the buzzer after Coleman Hawkins came up with a huge block. Illinois survived and advanced with a 54-53 victory.

Here are the grades from the Illinois basketball win over Chattanooga.

Offense: C

I might be a little generous giving the offense a C grade. It was very ugly at times.  They had 14 turnovers as a team and just looked completely discombobulated throughout the game.

Trent Fraizer and Andre Curbelo went a combined 1-of-13 from the field with seven points in this one. They also had seven turnovers.

Now some of the good, Plummer kept the Illini in this game in the second half when the offense was struggling. He hit three big three-pointers in that second half and scored 13 of his 15 points.

Kofi Cockburn did his thing on Friday night with 17 points and corralling 13 rebounds, five of which were on the offensive end. But he struggled at times with his touch around the rim. What he did do well was get the Mocs big men in a ton of foul trouble.

Hawkins added 10 points as he continued to start, even with Jacob Grandison being back. He caught two lobs from Fraizer that were big-time plays in the game.

Defense: A

The reason why the Illini were even in this game was the fact that they defended the heck out of the ball. Frazier had an awful game offensively, however, he was great on the defensive end like always. He held Smith to 4-of-20 from the field and only 12 points. It was great stuff from Frazier on that end.

I thought Kofi gave the Illini a great game defensively as well. He even held his own on the perimeter a few possessions. Kofi also added three blocks.

The other defensive star of the game was Hawkins. His length and athleticism are just a game-changer for this Illinois defense. He also came up with a huge block on the final possession of the game and secured the defensive rebound to seal the win.

Overall Grade: B

It wasn’t pretty. We only lead for 25 seconds of total game time, but the Illini will take it. It is just the survive and advance time of year, and they did that in this one.

Illinois will now take on No. 5 Houston at 11:10 a.m. CT on Sunday. The Illini have to come out more loose and be the aggressor early. Far too often this year, this team has had to battle back after a slow start. Just survive and advance. Win one at a time.