Illinois Falls To Purdue, 76-71; Big 10 Tourney Pairings

The Illini outscored the Boilermakers, 45-29, in the second half and held the hosts without a 3-pointer for the final 21 minutes of play, but they could not pull off the comeback road win.

The Illinois bench changed the game, including an 11-point effort from Sencire Harris. Harris provided a spark in the first half, scoring seven of the team's first 13 points, while he finished with five rebounds, including three on the offensive glass, and one steal.

Luke Goode came to play in the second half, registering a career-high 10 points and making both of his 3-point attempts. Goode also grabbed three rebounds and tallied one block and one steal.

Coleman Hawkins played a big role in holding Purdue's Zach Edey to 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting. Hawkins ended his day with a team-high +12, and he also recorded four rebounds, a team-high six assists, two blocks, amd one steal.

Matthew Mayer finished with a team-high 16 points and six rebounds, while he also notched two steals.

RJ Melendez continued his recent resurgence with seven points, four rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and two steals.

Terrence Shannon Jr. knocked down two 3-pointers and finished with 13 points, two assists, and one block.

Illinois (20-11, 11-9) now awaits its seeding for the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament, which gets underway with the first round on Wednesday at United Center in Chicago.

TEAM NOTES

Illinois closes the regular season at 20-11 (11-9 B1G)

The Illini have posted four straight seasons with 20 regular-season wins under head coach Brad Underwood

Illinois moves to 2-1 on the season against top-10 opponents with wins over No. 2 Texas and No. 8 UCLA

The Illini are now 12-6 in their last 18 games versus top-10 opponents

The Illini close the regular season with a 5-4 mark against top-25 ranked opponents

Illinois, the Big Ten's winningest team in league play over the last four years, closes the 2022-23 regular season with 55 total wins and 23 road wins.

Illinois trailed by 21 at halftime and 24 at the 18:44 mark of the second half before storming back to tie the game, 67-67, with 1:17 left in the second half

Illinois attempted just 50 field goals (24-50, .480) matching the team season low for attempts from the field (also vs. Northwestern, 2/23/23)

Illinois added seven blocks on the defensive end of the floor, extending the program record mark to 177 entering postseason play

PLAYER NOTES

Matthew Mayer scored a team-high 16 points, including the tying free throw at 1:17 mark of the second half, and also pulled down a team-high six rebounds

Mayer has led the Illini in scoring 12 times this season including seven of the last 11 games

Mayer has scored in double figures in 20 of his last 23 games, averaging 15.6 points (359)

Mayer has led the team in rebounding seven times this season

Mayer has posted four games leading the team in both scoring and rebounding, including the last two (vs. Michigan and at Purdue)

Terrence Shannon Jr. posted double-digits scoring (13 points) for his team-leading 25th game this season

Sencire Harris scored recorded 11 points off the bench for the Illini, his second double-digit scoring game of the season and first since scoring 12 vs. Bethune-Cookman (12/29/22).

Harris also pulled down five rebounds, his fourth game of the season with at least five boards, and his first in 13 games since grabbing a career-high 8 boards at Minnesota (1/16/23). 

Luke Goode added a career-high10 points off the Illini bench, eclipsing his previous mark of nine points set last season vs. Michigan State (1/25/22) 

Goode knocked down two three-pointers, his sixth-career game with multiple treys and his first since hitting 2-of-5 from beyond the arc last year in the NCAA tournament vs. Houston.

Coleman Hawkins dished out a game-high six assists to go along with six points, four boards, two blocks and a steal

Hawkins has tallied five or more assists seven times in his career, including a team-leading six times in 2022-23

Big Ten Tournament Pairings

Wednesday, March 8

Game 1 -- Ohio State vs. Wisconsin, 5:30 p.m.

Game 2 -- Minnesota vs. Nebraska, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 9

Game 3 -- Rugers vs. Michigan, 11 a.m.

Game 4 -- Winner Game 1 vs. Iowa, 1 p.m.

Game 5 -- Penn State vs. Illinois, 5:30 p.m.

Game 6 -- Maryland vs. Winner Game 2, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 10

Game 7 -- Purdue vs. Winner Game 3, 11 a.m.

Game 8 -- Michigan State vs. Winner Game 4, 1 p.m.

Game 9 -- Northwestern vs. Winner Game 5, 5:30 p.m.

Game 10 -- Indiana vs. Winner Game 6, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 11

Game 11 -- Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, noon

Game 12 -- Winner Game 9 vs Winner Game 10, 2 p.m.

Sunday, March 12

Game 13 -- Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12, 2:30 p.m. (championship)