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 When he wasn’t getting beat to a pulp
Giorgi Bezhanishvili buried 20 points to go along w 8 rebounds.
Aaron Jordan chipped in with 10 points and 7 rebounds.
Unfortunately, Illinois’ offense struggled too much of the night to
pull away from the pesky Badgers.
Two developments hurt the Illini deeply. The first occurred when the
Illini’s leading scorer Trent Frazier went to the bench early in the
first half. The Illini seemed to stagnate after that. The second
incident is when UW star big man Ethan Happ went to the bench with
his 2nd foul. You’re probably thinking, wouldn’t that be a good
thing? And normally you’d be correct. But on this night Illinois was
not able to capitalize on Happ’s absence. In fact, the Illini gave
up the lead and trailed 32-30 at the half. It was good however to
actually watch a game where fouls are called on physical teams like
Wisconsin. It’s hard to understand how more of the players don’t
foul out. But that’s another discussion for another day. Illinois
did hold Happ to a season-low 9 points & forced him into committing
a season-high 6 turnovers. [to top of second column] |
The Illini did force a season-high 17 turnovers against the sloppy
Badgers. Illinois clawed and scratched and stayed in the game until
the final five minutes, but ultimately couldn’t overcome some timely
UW baskets.
Illinois’ schedule doesn’t get any
easier as they now go on the road for their next two. They tackle
the always tough Maryland Terrapins Saturday morning at Madison
Square Garden in New York City, NY. Next Wednesday the Illini have a
brutal re-match with the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the twin
cities. The Illini return home to host the Nebraska Cornhuskers a
week from Saturday. [By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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