Champaign, Ill. - Once freshman center Jermaine Hamlin’s putback layup went in and the halftime buzzer sounded, the resounding question amongst media members sitting courtside was if a running clock should be used in the second half.
Both teams played competitive and neither were lacking in effort, but one was clearly better than the other in every facet of the game. Illinois dominated Lindenwood in the first half Tuesday night at the State Farm Center, leading 66-29 and eventually cruising through the second half for an easy 117-65 win. Fans get treated to a free taco for the Illini breaking triple-digit scoring.
“Six guys in double-figures. Another 25-assist night. I think it’s five straight halves of 60 percent field goal percentage. You’ll take that every day,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood. “Now I think we’ve found a rhythm… So much of our offense of our offense in the past has been predicated on our turnovers and forcing them. Now we’re starting to run pretty good offense and we’re starting to share the ball. When we can play with that pace and that speed, it was fun to see tonight.”
Viewing from the stands this game was Illinois commit Adam Miller and his high school team, Morgan Park, bringing up maybe an even better question of if Morgan Park could beat Lindenwood in the second half. It would’ve spiced things up at the least.
Several lopsided stats came from this game, the most lopsided being that Illinois shot 37 free throw attempts compared to Lindenwood’s five. The Illini easily killed them on the board, out-rebounding them 43-24, and turned the ball over 14 times compared to the 24 turnovers the Lions had. The overall dominance started from the “three little guys” as Underwood refers to his lead guards.
In the first half, the Illini starting guards asserted themselves as the best players on the court. The combination of Ayo Dosunmu, Andres Feliz and Trent Frazier outscored Lindenwood 38-29 themselves. Dosunmu finished with a game-high 24 points and five assists.
“We got three of the better guards in the country in the open court,” Underwood said.
Feliz was on a unique triple-double watch in the first half with 11 points, five assist and four steals. He couldn’t complete the feat, however, finishing with 16 points, nine assist, five boards and four steals. Frazier was lights outs in the frame, scoring 11 points and hitting three 3s. His final stat line was 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and 5-of-11 shooting from deep.
Where these three were possibly the most impactful was on the defensive end in the first half. Frazier was hounding his man all game and Dosunmu and Feliz had hands in the passing lane all day. Those two finished with a combined eight steals.
“That’s just one of our biggest focuses right now is just trying to create kills right now,” Frazier said. “Whatever team we’re playing, nameless and faceless, we’re just trying to prepare ourselves for Big Ten time when we’re playing Michigan State. We did a good job with that and just need to continue to get better.”
Off the bench, guard Da’Monte Williams had himself a career-night, scoring 18 points on 4-of-8 shooting and hitting 8-of-10 shots from the charity stripe. While Williams is known for his defensive prowess, his teammates have been pushing him to be more aggressive on the offensive end.
“With Da’Monte, I just try to tell him to stay aggressive,” Dosunmu said. “Sometimes, players when they’re missing shots early, they tend to fadeaway, but with Da’Monte, I’ve seen him put the work in. I see him in the gym each and every day working on his shot and working on his craft. So, I try to tell him to go out there and incorporate that and that’s what he’s been doing.”
The Illini’s schedule intensifies drastically after a week of blowout nonconference games. The “three Ms” of Miami, Maryland and Michigan are going unveil just where this Illinois basketball team is at this point of the season.
“It’s time to get better and we got the three Ms coming up so those are great, great challenges,” Underwood said.
