Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half as No. 14 Illinois downed spiraling Ohio State 87-75 in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday.
Marcus Domask also scored 23 and Ty Rodgers put up 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Illini (16-5, 7-3 Big Ten), who have won four of five.
Illinois made 51.7 percent of its field-goal attempts and outrebounded the Buckeyes 36-28.
Ohio State (13-8, 3-7), which has lost three straight and six of seven, was led by Jamison Battle (21 points and six rebounds). Roddy Gayle Jr. contributed 20 points.
Illinois extended a seven-point lead at the midway point to 60-48 with 12:48 left on a pull-up jumper by Shannon.
The Illini’s scorer leader (19.9 points per game), Shannon played his fourth game since a court order allowed him to return after missing six games because of an alleged sexual assault in September.
It was a 13-point lead before Shannon sank a layup and added a free throw for a three-point play to make it 68-52.
Ohio State drew to within 10, but Shannon helped regain a 16-point margin when he sliced through three Buckeyes for layup and a foul shot to make it 76-60 with 6:59 remaining. Ohio State got no closer than 10 the rest of the ways.
The Buckeyes’ woes continue. After back-to-back defeats at Nebraska and Northwestern to run their road losing streak to 14, the Buckeyes hoped the home court would be an advantage, but Illinois had other ideas.
The Fighting Illini closed on an 11-3 run to forge a 41-34 halftime lead. With 5:04 left in the half, Gayle stepped to the line and made all three free throws to give the Buckeyes a 31-30 advantage, but that edge lasted only 11 seconds because the Ilini raced down the court to set up a Domask 3-pointer. Domask and Gayle each had 11 points through 20 minutes.
Illinois shot 50 percent from the floor and made 5 of 11 (45.5 percent) from 3-point range prior to the break.
Ohio State shot 48.1 percent in the first half after hitting a season-low 34.1 percent in an 83-58 loss at Northwestern on Saturday. The Buckeyes finished at 50 percent on Tuesday.
–Field Level Media
