After the football team had an incredible win, the Illinois basketball program gave our hearts a break with a blowout victory.
The Illini came out of the gates, in the first game after the Alabama loss, and made Maryland Eastern Shore feel our wrath. This was an ugly game from the jump, and it only continued to get uglier throughout the afternoon.
Illinois was unstoppable defensively and managed to hold the Hawks to just 15 points in the first 20 minutes. At halftime, the Illini held a 20-point lead. That lead ballooned quickly in the second half. Illinois managed to put up a 52-spot in the final 20 minutes of action. This enabled the Orange and Blue to send Maryland Eastern Shore home with an 87-40 loss.
In the game of basketball, sometimes you can be a smaller team and out-heart the opponent. In the case of the Illinois basketball program, we just overpowered Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday.
Illinois clearly has bigger, faster, and stronger players, especially in the frontcourt. It was evident the entire game and even when we started to sub in our reserves.
Ben Humrichous and Tomislav Ivisic had a block party with five total blocks in the game. Our bench also had a combined four blocks. The rebounding department was another eye-popper. Illinois pulled down 59 rebounds compared to 38 rebounds from the Hawks. That is a +21 rebound night for the Illini.
Illinois’ size dominance was more than just numbers that we put up. The fact the Illini could hold Maryland Eastern Shore to 22.1% shooting from the field was mind-blowing.
The Hawks struggled to shoot over Illinois’ size. Their frontcourt was a combined 4-of-22 for the game, and as a team, they were 15-of-68.
I know it is a bad team in Maryland Eastern Shore, but this won’t be the last time Illinois’ size pays dividends. The fact we trot out a 7-foot-1, 6-foot-9, 6-foot-7, and a 6-foot-6 player in our starting lineup is huge literally and figurately. This size gave problems to the Hawks all game long.
