Illinois Basketball: Illini fall flat in road loss to Ohio State

The Illinois basketball team failed to get on a run, dropping a critical road game against Ohio State with a week left to play in the regular season.

The Illini entered Sunday’s game against Ohio State right in the thick of the Big Ten regular season title race, but the idea of a trap game came to snakebite the Orange and Blue.

Behind 20 points from Bruce Thornton and 14 points from Brice Sensabaugh, the Buckeyes exacted revenge against the defending Big Ten regular season co-champs, 72-60. The win snapped a nine-game Buckeye losing skid.

Illinois could not get going offensively, as their only lead came early in the first half while ahead 5-4, which lasted two-and-a-half minutes. The brief lead was a far cry from their previous outings, as they led throughout against Minnesota on Monday and railed from 18 points down to knock off Northwestern on Thursday night.

The rest of the half saw the Illini play catch-up. Minus a thunderous slam dunk from Coleman Hawkins, who led the Illini with 14 points, Illinois struggled to get going from three-point range, going just 5-of-15 from behind the arc. These numbers, coupled with Ohio State shooting over 40% from the field, saw the Illini trail for the second straight game, 41-29, at halftime.

Like the game in Champaign, Illinois slowly but surely crept its way back into the contest. Although Terrence Shannon Jr. failed to replicate his 26-point performance from Thursday night, his eight second half points made the game interesting. After Jayden Epps cut the deficit to one, 53-52, that was the closest the Illini would get to a potential sweep of the Scarlet and Grey.

An 8-1 run ensued, as the Buckeyes regained command to close the game with seven consecutive made shots, as the Illini only curated nine points off turnovers. The loss dropped the Illini to 19-10 overall and 10-8 in Big Ten play, falling into a two-way tie with the Iowa Hawkeyes for sixth place in the conference with two games left.

Illinois basketball will look to clinch 20 wins on Senior Night

The Illini will close their regular season home schedule with the Michigan Wolverines at the State Farm Center on Thursday night, as they will look for their 20th win in Champaign. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.

After the Michigan game, the Illini will travel to West Lafayette to take on Purdue in the season’s final game. Purdue clinched a share of the Big Ten regular season championship by virtue of a Maryland upset against No. 21 Northwestern.