Ayo to the Rescue: Dosunmu Leads No. 18 Illini Past Hoosiers 69-60

Illinois All-American guard Ayo Dosunmu has a game-high 30 points and 18 in the final nine minutes of action to help Illini defeat Indiana.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Welcome to another version of Ayo Dosunmu simply refusing to allow his team to lose.

The preseason All-America selection had 18 of his game-high 30 points in the final nine minutes to help No. 18 Illinois pull away from a pesky Indiana squad for a 69-60 home win Saturday.

With Illinois down 49-46 and struggling to avoid an upset and its first loss on its home floor this season, Dosunmu had a lay-in and a three-pointer in consecutive possessions to give the Illini (7-3, 3-1 in Big Ten) its final lead of the day. From that moment on, it was Dosunmu’s time to shine and essentially bury any hopes for the Hoosiers (5-4, 0-2).

Dosunmu had 18 of the Illini’s final 27 points in the game and completed his second straight game of 30 points as Illinois won its third Big Ten game in an 11-day stretch. Dosunmu finished 11 of 17 from the field and 4 of 5 from beyond the 3-point line.

“When it’s time to finish, when it’s time to close and put the other team away, I try to do that,” Dosunmu said. “So, when it’s time to win the game, I just try to put ‘em away.”

While stressing it was the plays of his teammates that allowed the junior from Chicago to take over this win Saturday, Illini center Kofi Cockburn wasn’t going to allow the co-captain to leave the post-game media conference with such a humble answer.

“I’m going to cut him off here just like he did me,” Cockburn said with a smile. “(Dosunmu) knows he can take over whenever he feels like it. Nobody can guard him. It’s that simple. That’s it.”

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood has constantly called the 6-foot-5 guard “the best guard in America” and Saturday was just another example.

“You can double him, you can do whatever you want on him and he’ll make the right pass, the right play and then you give him a crease and he’ll make the layup or make free throws when he gets fouled,” Underwood said. “I knew (three years ago) Ayo was a hard-rocking dude. I know how much his competitive spirit is. (Closing games) is what those guys do. To say you get tired of seeing it, you don’t.”

Today was Dosunmu’s sixth game of 22 points or more this season and in a situation where the entire Indiana bench knew the ball was coming to No. 11 in a white jersey, Dosunmu still managed to account for half of the Illini’s second-half points.

“When it’s time to win a game and it’s time to go home, I definitely have that instinct where I’m like ‘okay, these next three possessions, I’m going to make the right play’ whether it’s scoring or an assist to help our team win,” Dosunmu said.

In a matchup of arguably the two best underclassmen bigs in the Big Ten Conference, Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn contributed 15 points and 15 rebounds while also making the afternoon for Trayce Jackson-Davis miserable. Jackson-Davis, who finished with a season-low 11 points and eight rebounds, missed his first six shots and all of them were with the Illini’s 7-foot, 290-pound center in front of him. 

After averaging 87.8 points per game in its last five contests, Illinois won what Dosunmu called a traditional Big Ten “heavyweight collision” Saturday against a Hoosiers squad rated 11th in the nation by Ken Pomeroy in adjusted defense.

“As I told our guys, it’s nice to be able to win games in a lot of different fashions,” Underwood said. “I’m just glad we had the best player on the court at the end of the game in Ayo Dosunmu.”

Illinois will now have a six-day layoff before they face Purdue in State Farm Center on Jan. 2. The Illini and Northwestern (6-1, 3-0) are the only teams in the league with three conference wins.