Brad Underwood called the first half one of the ugliest halves you will see and he wasn’t wrong. The Illini led 30-27 at the break as both teams missed great looks. Illinois missed layups and Northwestern jacked 3’s as both teams were putrid offensively. Giorgi Bezhanishvili was the lone bright spot, dominating inside, scoring 16 first half, including the first 12 for Illinois.

In the second half the Wildcats got their offense rolling, hitting their first five shots and leading by as many as five points with under 12 minutes to play. AJ Turner was a big part of that, scoring 16 of his 20 points after the break, but Illinois battled back and actually took the lead late on a Feliz putback and free throw.

Northwestern would tie it but Feliz would get another crack at it, and despite a missed foul call on his first drive, it would be Illinois ball out of bounds underneath with 1.7 to play. Brad Underwood designed a play and allowed Feliz to get a layup over Pardon that went off the backboard and missed, forcing the game into overtime.

With Giorgi fouled out and Northwestern hitting a 3 to start the overtime, it looked bleak. Nichols would foul Falzon on a 3 and it was 66-63 Northwestern. Illinois would answer with an 8-0 run, including back to back 3’s by Frazier and Dosunmu and pull off the win.

1 - Giorgi is special - Look, even guys that loved Giorgi before he came to Illinois didn’t expect this. 26 points on 12-15 shooting against a guy that had given him trouble and is a talented Senior. Giorgi can score inside off the face up of with his back to the basket. Once he adds the perimeter jumper and the ability to dribble drive from the 3-point line he will be almost unstoppable on offense. Defensively he can get out and guard smaller guys because of his footwork. He didn’t make the All-Freshman team, but he has a shot to be an All-Big Ten player in the next couple of years.

2 - Feliz is tough - 11 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists and only one turnover. The development of this Junior guard throughout this season has been nothing short of amazing. Feliz is really the only guy that can consistently get into the paint in the half court and he also made some great passes on ball screen reads. He’s a grown man that has just started to figure out high major basketball as a player.

3 - Trent within himself - This is the way Trent Frazier needs to play. The sophomore has had his ups and downs, but tonight may have been his best game of the season. He played within the offense, made plays when it was there and was efficient. He got into the paint, made free throws and even grabbed 4 rebounds. This is the type of guard that fits well with Ayo and Feliz and makes Illinois dangerous when all three play well.

*How does Andres Feliz only play 26 minutes? He was +10 while on the floor, by the way.

*Illinois struggled to defend the screen and roll in the second half in large part because of the misdirection action. It was a tremendous adjustment by Collins to take away the help defense.

*Illinois their zone and varied the looks after the initial Northwestern surge to start the 2nd half. It slowed down the Wildcats enough for Illinois to come back.

*Aaron Jordan made a shot in the paint, but has really struggled inside the arc, shooting 28% from 2-point range. Just shoot the 3. His rebounding has been stellar though.

*Ayo Dosunmu made a big shot late but had a rough outing. He struggles to beat guys off the dribble in the half court and settled for jumpers. His biggest issue is playing too high and that contributes to his lack of explosion. He also let that hurt his defense at times.

*Not sure why Tevian Jones played just two minutes or why Tyler Underwood played six minutes. But it’s even more shocking that Da’Monte Williams played 20 minutes and was scoreless, shooting 0-5. Alan Griffin also had a goose egg, with 0 shots in 8 minutes. That’s virtually no production from the wing.

Illinois will face the Iowa Hawkeyes next, a team that is reeling. The Hawkeyes have lost four straight, including w home games and their defense has been atrocious.

Word out of Iowa City is that numerous players are ready to move on from Fran McCaffrey, including a couple of star players. McCaffrey just came back following a two-game suspension and it didn’t seem to help.

The Illini have a shot despite the 24-point drubbing in Iowa City 8 weeks ago.

Find shooters - Iowa lit Illinois up, hitting 15-21 from 3. That can’t happen again if Illinois wants to win this one. Weiskamp hit 6-6 from 3 and Moss was 5-6 the first time.

Score with them - Iowa is great on offense, but they struggle on defense, ranking 13th in the conference in defensive efficiency. Somehow, Illinois always has a long dry spell, but they can’t afford one on Thursday.

Frustrate them - This Iowa squad is struggling. Doesn’t mean they won’t right the ship this weekend, but if they continue to struggle Illinois can fluster and frustrate them.

Illinois is an 8-point dog on the first line I see, but Pomeroy says it will be an 82-77 Iowa win. We will take 80-74 Hawkeyes. They are a tough matchup for Illinois with the two bigs and shooters surrounding them.