Quick passing and unselfish play from the Illini opened up the Roos defensively, with one possession resulting in a monster dunk by Dainja. Shannon continued to showcase his ability to draw fouls as seen against EIU, shooting 5-7 from the line in the first half. The Illini continued to increase their lead in the final 10 minutes of the first through a combination of aggressive drives to the rim and defensive solidity at the other end of the court. Obviously our defense led to offense so it’s just playing defense and playing hard that got us all going in the first half, second half.”
“Bringing the energy on defense is what got me going (offensively),” Epps said, “Bringing energy on defense and rallying my teammates together to get going. Freshman guard Jayden Epps boosted the Illini’s lead to 22-13 after two consecutive makes from beyond the arc. The forward forced a turnover and finished a tough layup not long after, and Illinois began an 8-0 run. The Illini regained the lead at the 11:25 mark off of a three-pointer from Mayer, who continued to heat up as the game progressed. The scoring drought lasted over five minutes for Illinois until redshirt sophomore forward Dain Dainja managed an and-one finish, sparking celebratory roars from around the arena. Despite the initial momentum, the Illini’s accuracy suffered a sharp decline, shooting 0-13 from the field after sloppy misses beyond the arc and poor layup attempts, causing the Roos to take an early 9-5 lead. The first two minutes of the game saw both teams shooting blanks until Shannon got things started, opening the scoring with a massive one-handed dunk. Underwood made no changes to the starting lineup heading into the matchup, with the first unit consisting of senior guard Terrence Shannon Jr., freshman guard Skyy Clark, sophomore guard RJ Melendez, fifth-year forward Matthew Mayer and junior forward Coleman Hawkins. We did not have a great shootaround today, I thought we were a little flat, maybe there were distractions, maybe there was a little complacency. I thought Jayden Epps came in and did a tremendous, tremendous job of changing our energy. “Really cool night,” said head coach Brad Underwood of the ceremony, “But then we have to flip it and play a game that started off ugly. 23 Illinois to an 86-48 victory over Kansas City in Champaign. Following an emotional pregame 2022 Big Ten Champions banner raising, a highly energetic State Farm Center cheered No.
0 kommentar(er)
