Illini Pull Away Late to Dispatch Hawaii, 66-53
By Jeff Mayfield

[November 19, 2019]  During the course of every season there are gaps in the schedule. Those gaps can range from a couple of days to as much as more than a week.

Last night’s game for instance was played eight days after the Illini’s most reason contest, a loss at Arizona a week ago this past Sunday night. And you never know how a team is going to respond to said gaps or breaks.

Sometimes a team is so sick of beating on each other in practice they really take it out on their opponents. Sometimes they can be really lethargic. Other times they hardly miss a beat. Monday night’s ball game was of the rusty variety. And I don’t mean just wipe off the rust. We had to knock it off. We had to scrape off the rust and that took longer than anyone could have hoped for.

In fact, the Illini were 0-for-7 with 4 turnovers and after the first five minutes of action they found themselves trailing the Rainbow Warriors, who my son says has one of the best mascots in college basketball, 2-0. That turned out to be a precursor to the struggles the Illini had for at least the first 25 minutes of action. But as bad as they started and as much of a struggle as it was, Illinois was fortunate to be tied at halftime 26-26.

Finally, in the 2nd half the rust began to fall off. The Illini moved the ball better. And as they passed quickly around the perimeter it opened up 1-on-1 situations for the ‘bigs’ in a big way. Kofi Cockburn continued the start of his impressive freshman campaign by reaching a double-double again with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Even he had some offensive fumbles and easy missed shots, but righted himself along the way. He is showing everyone what Illinois has been missing the last 5-10 years.

Maybe with his success, Illinois will be able to recruit more centers and power forwards in the near future. Giorgi Bezhanishvili was not to be outdone. He came within 1-rebound of recording his own double with ten points and nine rebounds.

It was nice to see Trent Frazier, 13 points and lock-down defense, get back into the flow as he had struggled the last couple of games. Ayo Dosunmu and Kipper Nichols tallied nine points a piece and Andres Feliz finished the night with 5 assists. Alan Griffin is really showing his value to the club. He knocked down another big ‘3’ and continues to rebound amongst the giants. His physicality and lack of fear makes Illinois more tenacious. Illinois out-rebounded Hawaii 44-26 and hopefully that characteristic will keep the Illini in a lot of ball games this season.

Next up for the Illini is a game with The Citadel Wednesday night at 8pm.

[By JEFF MAYFIELD]

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