IU basketball: Indiana 71 Illinois 68 — Three keys Highlights Final ...

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana defeated Illinois by a final score of 71-68 on Saturday afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Illinois led 38-35 at halftime.  The Hoosiers were led in the game by Trayce Jackson-Davis with 24 points and 12 rebounds.  Three others scored in double figures to balance out the scoring.

Indiana (19-8, 10-6) will next travel to Michigan State for a Tuesday evening contest.

THREE KEYS TO THE GAME

1. Winning ugly.  The Hoosiers shot just 43.9 percent from the field and had 14 turnovers, but after trailing for most of the second half, they rallied late.  IU scored six points in the last 1:17 to close it out including a jump shot and two free throws by Jalen Hood-Schifino, right after he had thrown a bad pass that Illinois took down for a dunk.  Indiana’s defense improved considerably in the second half, as they held Illinois to 30 points on 34.6 percent shooting.

2. Second chance points.  Indiana had 15 offensive rebounds and scored 18 points off those second chances, including 7 points in the last 10 minutes. Illinois was aggressively going for blocked shots, and they got nine of them, but that often left openings on the glass for IU.  Jackson-Davis had four offensive rebounds, and Race Thompson had three.

3. Kopp hits clutch threes.  Miller Kopp was coming off a rough game at Northwestern but made 4-of-5 threes including two key makes in the second half.  His first three of the second half came when IU trailed by its largest deficit — nine with 12:12 left.  His next tied the game at 59 with 5:12 remaining.  His makes seemed to open up the middle of the floor late, and Indiana would never trail by more than two the rest of the way.

HIGHLIGHTS

FINAL STATS

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