David Mirkovic poured in 25 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead No. 8 Illinois to a 71-51 Big Ten victory over Indiana on Sunday afternoon in Champaign, Ill.
Keaton Wagler contributed 18 points and Tomislav Ivisic added 14 as the Illini (21-5, 12-3 Big Ten) snapped a two-game losing streak by turning 15 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points and committing a season-low two turnovers.
Kylan Boswell added nine points and seven rebounds as he returned to the Illinois lineup after missing seven games with a fractured right hand. Andrej Stojakovic sat out his second straight game with a high ankle sprain.
Lamar Wilkerson paced Indiana (17-9, 8-7) with 21 points, while Tucker DeVries posted 13 points and Sam Alexis added 11. However, the Hoosiers scored their fewest points since posting 48 at Rutgers on Dec. 3, 2022, as they hit 6 of 24 from 3-point range on Sunday and lost the rebound battle by a 38-25 count.
Both teams’ key players showed up immediately. While Wilkerson and DeVries canned their first 3-point attempts for Indiana, Wagler produced seven points in the first five minutes to forge an 11-11 tie.
Then, Mirkovic asserted himself. He cashed a 3-pointer on a pick-and-pop with Wagler at the 11:17 mark to highlight a 10-0 run that gave the Illini a 24-15 lead with 9:46 remaining. After Indiana’s Jasai Miles and Wilkerson answered with 3-pointers, Mirkovic hit back-to-back 3-pointers and fed Ivisic for a layup to restore a 32-23 lead with 5:28 to go.
Mirkovic posted 15 points in the first half, and Wagler added 11 to offset Wilkerson’s 14 and give Illinois a 38-31 halftime lead.
Ivisic scored the first five points of the second half to produce the game’s first double-digit lead, but Wilkerson responded with five of his own. Then Illinois reeled off 11 points in a row — highlighted by a Wagler 25-footer and a Mirkovic running bank — to claim a 54-36 lead with 12:33 to play.
Wilkerson was the only Hoosier to score in the first 10 minutes of the second half as the rest of the squad went 0-for-6 from the field with four turnovers. Though Alexis finally broke through with a dunk at the 9:31 mark, Indiana never got closer than 12 the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
