Virginia Hands Illinois Men's Basketball Loss, SIUE Wins JK54 Classic

Jayden Epps led the Illini with 14 points off the bench, while Coleman Hawkins registered 10 points and a season-high three blocks in the loss.

The Fighting Illini outrebounded the Cavaliers, 11–9, on the offensive glass, and scored 11 second-chance points.

Illinois (4-1) returns to Champaign on Friday night to take on Lindenwood at State Farm Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Big Ten Plus.

POSTGAME NOTES

The Illinois bench out-scored Virginia 22-13

The Illini bench has outscored their opponents 163-82 through five games this season.

Freshman Jayden Epps scored 14 points in today's game, his third double-digit effort of the season and a team high.Junior Coleman Hawkins scored 10 points and added three assists.

Hawkins went 2-for-5 from behind the arc.

Senior Terrence Shannon Jr. scored nine points and added a game-high six assists, matching his career high.

SIUE Wins JK54 Classic Title

FARMVILLE, Va. – SIUE men's basketball completed its task Sunday, knocking off host Longwood 61-56 to win the 2022 JK54 Classic. SIUE won all three games to claim the championship.

The Cougars improved to 4-2. Longwood dropped to 3-3. The win snapped a 15-game home winning streak for Longwood, last year's Big South Champion and NCAA tournament participant. It also marks the first tournament championship for SIUE since the 2010 Las Vegas Classic. The Championship win, incidentally, also came against Longwood.

"Three wins, that was our goal," SIUE Head Coach Brian Barone said. "That's a heck of a win. That is a big-time team and I am so proud of these guys. I cannot express how lucky I feel to coach this team right now."

SIUE outlasted Longwood, despite neither team shooting very strongly from the field. The Cougars took an eight-point lead (35-27) into halftime on the strength of a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Ray'Sean Taylor.

The lead swelled to as many as 11 points after two free throws from Shamar Wright made it 40-29 with 18:43 left in the second half but Longwood forged a comeback. It was 47-40 Cougars when the Lancers scored the next 10 points to take a 50-47 lead with 6:03 left.

SIUE regained the edge when Longwood's Michael Christmas missed a shot, which was altered by Jonathan Kurtas, and the Damarco Minor came away with the steal. Minor went the length of the floor for the finish at the rim to put SIUE up 51-50 and the Cougars never trailed again.

"We continue to persevere," Barone said. "We just believe in one another right now."
DeeJuan Pruitt made it 58-54 with a pick and roll play as Minor found Pruitt diving to the rim for two points with 23 seconds left.

"I was going to call a timeout, but we executed perfectly, on the fly, to score with one second left (on the shot clock)," Barone said. "To be honest, the team was calling that play."

D.A. Houston brought Longwood back within two with a pair of free throws before Taylor buried two free throws with 10 seconds left. Lamar Wright sank a free throw with under a second to play to seal the win for SIUE.

Taylor led SIUE in scoring with 15 points. Pruitt and Shamar Wright each added 10 points for the Cougars, who shot just 34 percent from the field. The Cougars were 6-19 (32 percent) from three-point range but connected on 81 percent (25-30) of their free throws.

DeShaun Wade scored 14 points to lead Longwood, which shot just 33 percent (19-57) for the game.

SIUE returns to action Saturday in a 7 p.m. game at Kansas City.