(Iowa City, IA) — Illinois built a big lead and held off a furious rally to beat Iowa on Sunday 75-69 in a Big 10 battle and a game between ranked opponents.
The #16 Illini led 58-41 midway through the 2nd half when the #19 ranked Hawkeyes began their comeback. Tate Sage made back to back lay-ups and Cooper Koch sank a three to cut the lead to 10. Keaton Wagler hit a triple for the Illini but Koch answered back with another three and after an Illinois miss, Koch made a driving lay-up to cut the lead to 8. After Wagler was 1-2 on free throws, Banks got a dunk and Sage got a dunk cutting lead to 62-57 with 6:34 remaining.
After a couple of Iowa misses, Wagler hit a huge triple for Illinois to push the lead back to 8. Trailing 67-59, Bennett Stirtz got a lay-up and after a Wagler miss, Tavion Banks dunked one home to cut it to 67-63 with 1:53 left.
Its as close as Iowa got — Kylan Boswell made a driving lay-up to give Illinois a 6 point lead and the Illini went 6-6 from the free throw line down the stretch to hold on.
Iowa had to play a large bulk of the 2nd half without its leading scorer. Stirtz got his 4th foul with around 11 minutes left in the game and sat out for about 7 minutes of game time. With Stirtz on the bench, Iowa actually outscored the Illini 18-10. Tavion Banks led Iowa (12-4, 2-3) with 17 points. Tate Sage had 13, Stirtz finished with 12 and Cooper Koch added 10.
Keaton Wagler led Illinois (13-3, 4-1) with 19 points, Adrej Stojakovic and Kylan Boswell each had 17
