Illinois Shoots Down North Carolina Central, 86-73
By Jeff Mayfield

[November 27, 2017]  On Friday, the Illinois Fighting Illini outscored North Carolina Central 52-38 on their way to an 86-73 win over the Eagles. With the victory Illinois moves to 6-0 on the campaign.

The Illini had a nice breakout game from the arc as they dialed in 12 of 29 long-distance shots on the night. Michael Finke led the way by making five of them and leading the team in scoring with 22 points. Aaron Jordan continued his stellar play on the young season by dialing in four 3’s on his way to 16 points. Leron Black had 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Those 3’s were a necessity as Illinois was out-rebounded by the Eagles 34-28. The Illini did force 20 turnovers, while committing only 10 of their own. All of that led to Illinois’ commanding 28-10 advantage on points off turnovers.

Illinois’ better shooting, 41% from the 3-point line was comforting to see. However, there are still concerns heading into a much more difficult stretch of the schedule. Defensive lapses, scoring droughts, and missed assignments are just a few of the aspects the Illini will have to cleanup before facing the Wake Forest Demon Deacons Tuesday night out East.

Now to be fair, I’ve heard several coaches tell me that some of the toughest games you play all year are around the holidays, especially Thanksgiving. And it’s not because of the opponents, though the NCC Eagles were a decent team having advanced to the NCAA tournament last year. It’s just that players get to spend time with family and friends, stuffing down food that may not be putting energy back into their bodies. They are on break from school and outside of their normal routines and you can see all those things are not a recipe for success.

However, Coach Underwood makes no excuses and is a no-nonsense kind of guy and it appeared like he got through to the players during the half-time break. As the second half unfolded the Illini’s intensity increased exponentially. Te’Jon Lucas vocalized a challenge to his teammates and then led the way with better defense. Then Finke hit a few shots and before you went to your fridge to get another turkey sandwich, the Illini had some breathing room.

They had a little bit of a scoring lapse in trying to close out the game but their 75% clip from the free throw line alleviated some of the fears. They do have a couple of days to work on things before travelling to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on Tuesday at 8pm.

Any way you slice it, we should learn a lot about the Illini this next week.

[By JEFF MAYFIELD]

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