Kasparas Jakucionis had 18 points, six assists and five rebounds as No. 22 Illinois held on to defeat Washington 81-77 on Sunday afternoon in Seattle and complete a sweep of its trip to the Pacific Northwest.
Tre White had 17 points and seven rebounds and Kylan Boswell added 14 points, including two clinching free throws with six seconds left, for the Fighting Illini (11-3, 3-1 Big Ten), who have won four consecutive games, including a 109-77 victory Thursday at No. 9 Oregon.
DJ Davis led the Huskies (10-5, 1-3), who were coming off a 75-69 upset of Maryland, with career highs of 31 points and seven 3-pointers. Luis Kortright scored 10, the only other Washington player to reach double digits.
Illinois shot 31 of 66 from the field (47.0 percent) despite going just 5 of 26 from 3-point range. The Huskies shot 28 of 65 (43.1 percent) and were 10 of 26 from behind the arc. The Illini had a 43-30 rebounding edge and outscored Washington 52-30 in the paint.
Ben Humrichous opened the second half with a 3-pointer to extend Illinois’ advantage to 14 points. The Huskies trimmed the lead to four on three occasions in the final seven minutes before Davis scored on a reverse layup with 1:01 remaining to pull Washington within 75-73.
White’s errant pass led to a layup by Kortright to tie the score with 47 seconds left.
Jakucionis made a left-handed driving layup with 32 seconds left to give the Illini a 77-75 lead.
Illinois forced a held ball on a scramble on the floor with 14 seconds left and got possession. Jakucionis was fouled with 12 seconds to go and made both free throws to extend the lead to four.
Davis made a driving layup with 6.7 seconds to go and the Huskies fouled Boswell, who made both free throws.
Jakucionis scored 10 points in the first half as the Illini took a 42-31 lead.
Illinois used an early 8-0 run to take a 10-2 lead, and it extended the advantage to 27-10 with 7:13 remaining.
Davis nearly single-handedly kept the Huskies in the game before the intermission, scoring 11 points — including three 3-pointers — during an 18-6 run that pulled them within 33-28 with 2:17 left.
Washington’s Great Osobor, who had 20 points, 14 rebounds and four assists against Maryland, was held scoreless in the first half on 0-for-5 shooting and had just one rebound. Osobor finished with nine points and four boards.
It was the first time the teams met in Seattle since Dec. 27-30, 1927, when the Fighting Illini played a three-game series at what was then known as University of Washington Pavilion — the arena in which the Huskies still play — when it was dedicated.
–Field Level Media
