MILWAUKEE — Will Riley scored 22 points and Tomislav Ivisic added 20 points and 10 rebounds to pace sixth-seeded Illinois to an 86-73 victory over 11th-seeded Xavier in the first round of the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region on Friday.
Illinois (22-12) advances to a Sunday second-round game against third-seeded Kentucky, which pulled away in the second half for a 76-57 victory over 14th-seeded Troy.
Kasparis Jakucionis added 16 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds and Kylan Boswell put up 15 points for the Illini, who had a 45-25 edge on the boards.
“We won the rebounding battle by 20, that’s who we’ve been all year,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “It’s nice to go 18 of 18 from the free-throw line, as well. But I thought we made plays. I’ll be honest, I was scared to death. Watching them against Texas the other night, and knowing how hot they were. And what they were doing shooting the basketball.”
“Really proud of this group. Really excited for their performance, and now we’ve got an opportunity to try and go do it again.”
Illinois opened the second half with an 8-2 run, going in front 48-37 on a three-point play by Jakucionis.
The Illini hit six consecutive shots over a four-minute span, pushing the lead to 62-48 on Riley’s 3-pointer from the top. They extended the lead to 69-52 on a dunk by Morez Johnson Jr. with just under 10 minutes left.
“I felt we played an excellent Illinois team,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “If that wasn’t their best, then they’re real, real good. I felt like they played really well against us, and if they do that, we would have had to have an extraordinary game to beat them. Today, we were not as good as Illinois was.”
Xavier pulled within 76-68 on a three-point play from Dailyn Swain, but Riley countered with a 3-pointer and Jakucionis converted a steal into a breakaway lay-in to make it 81-68 with 3:01 remaining.
Illinois hit 12 of 30 (40 percent) from beyond the arc and was 18-for-18 from the free-throw line.
Swain had 27 points and eight rebounds while Ryan Conwell and Dayvion McKnight had 12 points apiece for the Musketeers (22-12).
Xavier forced 14 turnovers, including 11 steals, for a 13-6 advantage in points off miscues.
Illinois took its largest lead of the tightly contested first half at 35-27 on Riley’s layup with five minutes remaining.
Conwell’s jumper brought Xavier within 37-35, but Boswell’s step-back 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer put the Illini up 40-35 at the break.
–Jim Hoehn, Field Level Media
