CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The slow start had Illini fans a little deterred to say the least, but Illinois handled Lewis with ease in its 83-50 exhibition win on Friday, Nov. 1.

The Illini came out sloppy and couldn’t take care of the ball, but recollected themselves in the second half, flexing on the smaller Division-II program on both ends of the court.

The star of the night was freshman center Kofi Cockburn. In his first game at the State Farm Center, he scored a team-high 16 points and a team-high 11 rebounds in his debut. Cockburn shot 7-of-9 from the field and 2-of-4 from the free throw line.

His frontcourt partner, forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili, filled up the stat sheet, recording 12 points, seven rebounds, two assist, two steals and four blocks. The big man tandem had high-low action working all night and were dominating the paint on both ends.

On a night where star guard Ayo Dosunmu struggled - had five points and shot 1-of-7 from the field and 1-of-4 from the 3-point line - guards Andres Feliz and Trent Frazier picked up the slack. Frazier scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and drained three 3's, and Feliz scored 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting.

The final score shows a dominant win over team which you should have a dominant win over, but there were plenty of areas for Illinois to improve on. Head coach Brad Underwood is just happy this was an exhibition game.

“That’s why we play these games. For the people in the stands and turn on the lights and see an opponent that’s well coached, extremely disciplined,” Underwood said. “I liked our ball movement a lot in the second half. Very disappointed in our turnovers. We can’t turn the ball over. Trent got us going offensively and I thought Andres Feliz was unbelievable on both ends of the court once again. We made a little adjustment at half on.”

Illinois fans were excited to see what Underwood’s new squad looked like when it first stepped back on to the hardwood floor at the State Farm Center. The Illini had received national attention and expectations, and the hype in Champaign had reached high levels.

But Illinois had you believing the hype was too soon with the way it started against Lewis. The Flyers opened the game with a 14-2 lead on the Illini as miscues and missed opportunities were left all over the court during the first 20 minutes.

“I thought first 10 or 12 possessions, we tried to hit a grand slam every play,” Underwood said. “We either tried to hit a 3 after one pass or two passes, or either tried to throw the ball inside to Kofi and it wasn’t there. Ball movement and our flow wasn’t very good. Just out of sorts and in a hurry.”

Near the 13 minute mark of the first half, the Illini were 1-of-8 on their field goal attempts and were 0-of-4 from the 3-point line. At this same point, they had also committed seven turnovers. The Flyers, in the meantime, were lights out from deep, even banking in a couple 3s early.

“I would say the slow start was finally getting back out there and playing in front of a big crowd,” Frazier said. “Had a whole different lineup. We had to figure each other out, and figure out what we can do as an offense and I guess the ball wasn’t going in the hole at the beginning.”

During this stretch, Underwood was hesitant to utilize his bench. Lewis still held an 11 point lead with eight minutes left in the half, and Underwood knew he needed to make up that deficit before he started tinkering with lineups.

Underwood also wanted to see how his lineup handled adversity on their own, even saying he regrets using a timeout because he wanted his players to resolve the issues themselves.

“We got off to such a… bad start,” Underwood said. “I needed those guys in the first half to be quite honest. I needed those guys in the first half to play through some difficulty, play through some challenges and learn to figure it out on their own. I debated on calling a timeout, I did, probably wish I hadn’t. They need to figure out some of that on their own.”

It took Illinois essentially the entire duration of the first half to get its first lead of the game. At the break, the Illini led the Flyers 32-29. That small window was all the Illini needed as they went on to outscore their opponent 51-21 in the second half.

Registering a double-double and leading your team in points and rebounds isn’t a bad way to kick this thing off for Cockburn. Of course, the disclaimer here is there wasn’t a single player on Lewis’ roster who came close to matching Cockburn’s size and physicality in the paint. Big Ten conference games will offer that person. But Cockburn did was he supposed to do, and then some against the Flyers.

He certainly impressed his teammates Friday night.

“He’s a monster down there. It’s incredible, man,” Frazier said. “I don’t know how much he had tonight. Double-double. I mean, the guy’s unbelievable. He’s been great for us all preseason. Props to Giorgi and Jermaine (Hamlin) on just battling him all preseason. From the beginning he walked into campus; it’s crazy to say he’s gotten three times better since he got here.

“Physicality for him, I mean, I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to stop him this year. His presence down low in the post; our priority for our guards right now is to get him the ball because when he’s in there, he can score the ball whenever he wants. He’s a tremendous rebounder. He’s going to be great for us.”

Cockburn highlighted several aspects of his offensive game against Lewis. He showed a promising hookshot on a couple of his buckets. He knew how to position himself best for offensive rebounds (which he had three of), and he played against the zone very efficiently. Cockburn flashed to the high post on some possessions, and when he did, he knocked down 2-of-3 midrange jumpers roughly from the free throw line.

If Cockburn has a consistent midrange jumper in his arsenal, then the Illinois offensive will thrive even more from his presence.

On the defensive end, Cockburn swallowed up nearly every defensive rebound. His rim protection was solid as well. Cockburn may have only blocked one shot, but he contested everything in the paint, altering it in the process.

Cockburn stayed out of fall trouble too as his only foul came on the offensive end late in the game. With that said, Underwood still wanted to see Cockburn attempt more swats, even at the risk of a foul.

“I think we’ve talked to him maybe too much about it,” Underwood said on Cockburn and foul trouble. “I need him to go challenge a couple things at the rim, which I was disappointed. We got to show him on film where he’s got to - and there were a couple plays in the paint in the first half - go challenge that. It’s okay. They need to know where you’re at and they need to feel your presence, but yeah, Kofi’s very cerebral, no doubt about that. And he likes playing so he doesn’t want to foul.”

Forward Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk hasn’t been practicing with the team for all that long. Sure, he’s been around the team and working out with them all offseason, but a leg injury kept him sidelined from practice until last week.

In his fifth “full” day as Underwood referred it as, Bosmans-Verdonk scored 11 points, going 3-of-3 from the 3-point line and 2-of-2 from the free throw line.

“His knowledge and understanding of picking things up is off the chart," Underwood said. "I was more impressed defensively, and yes, I know he made shots and he’s a very, very good shooter. His defensive effort was sensational.”

Underwood said in the radio interview he does postgame that Bosmans-Verdonk had perfect ball screen coverage in the game.

The fact Bosmans-Verdonk only played eight minutes got a smirk out of Underwood. He, jokingly, admitted that it was bad coaching on his part not getting Bosmans-Verdonk more minutes. Underwood added later on that he planned to play him in the first half, but the team’s poor start didn’t really allow for that.

Now, Underwood thinks that may have been a mistake too. Seeing Bosmans-Verdonk’s size and defensive ability, along with his shooting stroke, allowed for his potential to shine through the way it did against Lewis.

“Ben’s been terrific and I think we can see some of the things he has and some of the tools he has,” Underwood said.