Powerful Illinois Gets a Scare, But Beats Huskies

The UW rushes back to tie the game in the final minute.

Christian King tries to block a shot by Illinois's Tre White. / Skylar Lin Visuals

The University of Washington basketball team never led against visiting Illinois over the full 40 minutes. Fell behind by 17 points early on. Was ready to do a face plant reminiscent of its bad losses to USC and Seattle U.

On Sunday, the Huskies still lost, but they made the process ever so entertaining by furiously scrambling back to tie the game with 50 seconds remaining before giving in to an 81-77 defeat before a loud and raucous Alaska Airlines Arena.

Illinois' best player, Kasparas Jakucionis, a 6-foot-6 freshman from Vilnius, Lithuania, put the visitors back in front for good at 77-75 with a driving lay-in with 32.7 seconds left, making this a successful Illini return trip to Seattle after first playing in this gym 98 years ago.

"We scrapped with one of the best teams in the country," Husky coach Danny Sprinkle said. "I don't like the way it ended."

With a team full of Eastern Europeans and assorted American talent -- rather than the grandsons or great grandsons of those earlier visitors, who lost two of three outings to christen the arena -- Illinois walked in and for the longest time acted like it owned the place.

However, DJ Davis kept the Illini from getting too comfortable with 3-point flurry for the Huskies in each half. He came off the bench to score a game- and season-high 31 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including 7 of 14 from behind the line.

With the game at 77-75, Sprinkle tried to set up one more play for Davis, but the guard got stripped and possibly fouled on the drive, resulting in a jump ball that favored Illinois and left the UW coach furious over the exchange, with his assistants needing to restrain him.

"Just look at the play," the coach said.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood was no stranger to Davis, having seen him single-handedly dismantle Creighton last year when the guard played for Butler. His players weren't quite so familiar with the long-range shooter.

"Because he doesn't start, because he's not in the lineup, doesn't mean we respect him," Underwood said.

If there was any consolation, the 22nd-ranked Illini (11-3 overall, 3-1 Big Ten 3-1) were much kinder to the Huskies (10-5, 2-2) than they were Oregon after leaving Eugene with a 32-point victory.

Zoom Diallo attacks the Illinois front line on Sunday. / Skylar Lin Visuals

After upsetting Maryland this past Thursday, the Huskies didn't handle the stepped-up physicality well at all early on and settled into a catch-up mode.

Notably, the UW's 6-foot-8 power forward Great Osobor was held in check. He didn't score until the opening minute -- of the second half. He tried to put his shoulder into 7-foot-1, 255-pound Tomislav Ivisic from Croatia without much success. He missed his first six shots. He finished with 9 points on 2-for-8 shooting.

None of the UW starters actually finished in double figures, with reserve guard Luis Kortright backing Davis with 10 points.

Five minutes into it, the Huskies trailed 10-2, unable to hit anything from the perimeter. With 7 minutes left in the opening half, they were down 27-10 -- the home team's largest deficit -- and still hadn't hit a jump shot.

Kortright finally broke that dry spell with a corner 3-pointer. More importantly, Davis was now on the floor and he canned four 3-point shots, personally bringing the Huskies within five at 33-28 with two minutes left in the half. It was a short-lived run.

"It felt good hearing the crowd explode," Davis said.

Illinois had an immediate answer. It put the ball in the hands of Jakucionis, who led the Illini in scoring with 18, and he drained a pair of deep 3-pointers, helping his team break for halftime with a 42-31 advantage.

Into the second half they went and the Illini rebuilt a big advantage until Davis started firing and hitting again from behind the line, He canned three treys over a three-minute spell. This enabled the Huskies to pull within 61-57 with 7 minutes remaining. They kept coming.

Kortright scored on a put-back to tie the game at 75 with 50 seconds to go -- the game's first deadlock since 2-2. The Illini knew they had been in a battle.

"I give them a lot of credit," Underwood said. "We got really complacent with the basketball. We got really sloppy and we hadn't been dong that."

The Huskies now take their first Big Ten road trip into the Midwest, visiting 18th-ranked Michigan State (12-2, 3-0) on Thursday and Michigan (11-3, 3-0) on Sunday -- currently the top two teams in the conference standings.

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