CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) Will Riley scored 20 of his 24 points in the second half and No. 18 Illinois rallied from an 11-point deficit to beat Ohio State 87-79 on Sunday.
Morez Johnson Jr. had 14 points and 15 rebounds, Kylan Boswell had 14 points, Tomislav Ivisic had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn had 10 points for the Illini (15-7, 7-5 Big Ten), who went on a 15-point run over a five-minute stretch late in the second half.
Devin Royal scored 29 points – 19 in the first half – for Ohio State (13-9, 5-6), which had a three-game winning streak snapped. Bruce Thornton had 22 points and John Mobley Jr. had 18 points.
Ivisic, Illinois’ No. 2 scorer and leading rebounder, returned to action after missing three games with mononucleosis. He played 29 minutes.
Illinois: The Illini shot 10 of 42 on 3-pointers Thursday in a disappointing overtime loss to Nebraska, which had lost six straight. Illinois was just 4 of 20 on triples against Ohio State, but outrebounded the Buckeyes 43-31 and dominated points in the paint 52-30.
Ohio State: The Buckeyes’ three-game winning streak could have been a lot longer. They lost three in a row by a total of five points before ending the skid with a win Jan. 21 at No. 10 Purdue.
Illinois had a nearly seven-minute field goal drought in the first half and fell behind 34-25. The rest of the game was an uphill battle for the Illini until their 15-point run, which began with about seven minutes to go. Illinois led for less than 10 minutes.
Illinois’ bench outscored Ohio State’s bench 43-4.
Illinois is at Rutgers on Wednesday night while Ohio State hosts Maryland on Thursday night.
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STARTERS | PTS | REB | AST | PF |
D. Royal | 29 | 7 | 0 | 3 |
B. Thornton | 22 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
J. Mobley Jr. | 18 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
M. Parrish | 4 | 5 | 0 | 4 |
A. Bradshaw | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
BENCH | PTS | REB | AST | PF |
I. Njegovan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Q. Glover | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
E. Mahaffey | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
C. White | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
K. Etzler | – | – | – | – |
C. Baumann | – | – | – | – |
S. Stewart | – | – | – | – |
A. Parks | – | – | – | – |
B. Nash | – | – | – | – |
Total | 79 | 30 | 6 | 25 |
STARTERS | PTS | REB | AST | PF |
M. Johnson Jr. | 14 | 15 | 0 | 2 |
T. Ivisic | 12 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
D. Gibbs-Lawhorn | 10 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
K. Jakucionis | 8 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
T. White | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
BENCH | PTS | REB | AST | PF |
W. Riley | 24 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
K. Boswell | 14 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
B. Humrichous | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
J. Davis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
K. Kutcher | – | – | – | – |
A. Redd | – | – | – | – |
C. Booth | – | – | – | – |
J. Jakstys | – | – | – | – |
Total | 87 | 40 | 10 | 14 |