LIVE: FINAL - No. 19 Illinois 80, No. 7 Iowa 75 - Illini Knock Off Top 10 Rival

Good evening and welcome to the State Farm Center for arguably the most anticipated game on the 2020-21 Illinois basketball schedule where No. 19 Illinois (10-5, 6-3) will host No. 7 Iowa (12-3, 6-2).

Matthew Stevens | Jan 29, 2021

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Good evening and welcome to the State Farm Center for arguably the most anticipated game on the 2020-21 Illinois basketball schedule where No. 19 Illinois (10-5, 6-3) will host No. 7 Iowa (12-3, 6-2).

I'm LOOKING LIVE...at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill., as we're about a few hours from the opening tip.

NOTE: Please join us as we live-blog and discuss the Illini game here in our weekly Illini Gameday Open Thread. Dive into the conversation — it's easy — by simply going to the top right of the redesigned site and click the follow button.

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Game 16: No. 7 Iowa at No. 19 Illinois

Date/Time/Place: Friday, Jan. 29, 2021: 8 p.m. CST, State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill.

Capacity: N/A (NO FANS!)

Records: Iowa 12-3, 6-2 in Big Ten Conference; 20-11, 11-9 in the Big Ten Conference in 2019-20 season. Illinois 10-5, 6-3 in Big Ten Conference; 21–10, 13–7 in Big Ten Conference in 2019-20 season.

Line: Illinois by 3

Series notes: Illinois leads the all-time series Illinois leads 86-76 and leads 63-17 in Champaign. The last meeting was the final game of the 2019-20 season for both teams when Kofi Cockburn came up with big defensive play, blocking Luka Garza’s game-tying attempt with one second left and sealing the 78-76 win.

TV: FS1; Kevin Kugler (Play-by-Play), Stephen Bardo (Analyst)

Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (PBP), Doug Altenberger (analyst).

Projected Starters:

Iowa

Jordan Bohannon - G

CJ Fredrick - G

Connor McCaffery - G

Joe Wieskamp - G

Luka Garza - C

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Illinois

Ayo Dosunmu - G

Trent Frazier - G

Adam Miller - G

Jacob Grandison - F

Kofi Cockburn - C

UNIFORM UPDATE:

Illinois is going with the traditional orange uniforms with the script 'Illinois' on the front and Iowa is going with the black uniforms with the gold trim.

LIVE: Media Timeout (14:43 left in 1st): No. 19 Illinois 14, No. 7 Iowa 13 - Offense is clearly not a problem early on tonight as Illinois' transition offense has been able to hang with Iowa's half-court execution. The pair of preseason All-America selection both have 6 points (Ayo Dosunmu & Luka Garza).

LIVE: Media Timeout (11:25 left in 1st): No. 7 Iowa 24, No. 19 Illinois 20 - Illinois already with four fast-break points but Luka Garza already with double figures and the All-American knows he can get a post touch wherever he wants against Giorgi Bezhanishvili. Illini have opened this game 9 of 13 from the field and they're down four points.

LIVE: Media Timeout (7:38 left in 1st): No. 19 Illinois 28, No. 7 Iowa 24 - Dosunmu leads all scorers with 12 points and the Illini transition offense has already accounted for six points tonight. Iowa just 3 of 7 from beyond the 3-point arc and most of them have been contested.

LIVE: Media Timeout (3:48 left in 1st): No. 7 Iowa 33, No. 19 Illinois 32 - Ayo Dosunmu with half of the Illini's points and Iowa has eight second-chance points on five offensive rebounds.

LIVE: HALFTIME: No. 19 Illinois 43, No. 7 Iowa 41 - Illinois closes with five points from Trent Frazier to take a lead into the locker room. Just excellent offensive execution from both teams. 36 of the 43 Illini points are from Dosunmu and Frazier. And most of this late run was done with Cockburn on the bench. Garza with 13 points but his teammates are 11 of 25 from the field.

LIVE: Media Timeout (15:57 left): No. 19 Illinois 50, No. 7 Iowa 46 - Iowa already has two turnovers in this half and Kofi Cockburn, with his two first-half fouls, is having a better time containing (noticing I didn't type stopping) Garza in the post. The key for Illinois' defense might be containing Wieskamp in this second half.

LIVE: Media Timeout (10:20 left): No. 19 Illinois 59, No. 7 Iowa 58 - Iowa has 12 second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds tonight. Trent Frazier has 17 points and is going to the foul line for more after this timeout.

LIVE: Media Timeout (7:23 left): No. 7 Iowa 65, No. 19 Illinois 63 - Wieskamp drains a 3-pointer to give Iowa the lead back and the Hawkeyes have converted on each of its last three trips. Iowa is 8 of 18 from the 3-point arc tonight and some of those eight makes are after 20-25 seconds of solid defense.

LIVE: Media Timeout (4:00 left): No. 19 Illinois 69, No. 7 Iowa 69 - Illinois in the midst of a 2:23 scoring drought but Luka Garza just got hit with his four foul. Refs allowing a lot of contact on drives to the rim. Illinois is 4 of 8 from 3-point range in this half. Dosunmu with 25 points and four assists.

Published Jan 29, 2021

MATTHEW STEVENS