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Saturday night’s 66-58 Illini victory over
Purdue was not a masterpiece. Defensively you might give
IIlinois props, but offensively there were some breakdowns and
plenty of misfires. Anyway, the win made Illinois the first team
in the league to 4-wins. Every victory this season will be more
critical than the last.
On a night when Illini superstar Ayo Dosunmu was held to 12
points, it was nice to see a cast of characters step-up. It was
a night where the sum of the parts were greater than the whole.
Kofi Cockburn did post another double double with 14 points and
10 rebounds, but it was anything but easy.
Hats off to Adam Miller, Andre Curbelo, Coleman Hawkins and
Trent Frazier for outstanding contributions in supporting roles.
And don’t forget the continued spectacular actions by Peoria’s
Da’Monte Williams. What did he do? I’m glad you asked. He also
had a double double with 12 points while grabbing 10 rebounds of
his own!
Illinois did shoot 48% from the field while holding Purdue to
38%.
A less than stellar night at the charity stripe did not allow
the Illini to put the game out of reach early enough for
comfort, but Illinois executed enough in the last 5 minutes to
get the job done.
With the victory Illinois moved to 8-3 4-1 with another tough
stretch on the horizon. The Illini will travel to Evanston
Thursday to take on the resurgent Northwestern Wildcats at 8pm.
[LDN]
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