No. 3 Illinois didn’t exactly cruise, but it did enough to shake off a shaky opening half and beat Sam Houston State 108-86 Friday night at State Farm Center.
The Illini, coming off their first loss of the season Tuesday in Lubbock, were loose in spots and messy in others against a Sam Houston team that kept hanging around. Illinois missed too many layups, had defensive breakdowns and never fully separated early. But once the second half settled in, the talent gap showed and the Illini pulled away for a comfortable finish in the first meeting between the programs.
“There’s nothing easy in life, and I don’t want them [freshmen] to think that’s easy,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. “I don’t want them to think that winning games by 25 or 30 is easy.”
Tomislav Ivisic set the tone offensively and turned in a career night, scoring 28 points while knocking down 6 of 14 from 3-point range. It was his third double-digit scoring game of the season, and it continued the momentum he built with 14 points Tuesday. The volume from deep stood out, especially after the last time he even approached that many attempts was 12 in the NCAA Tournament loss to Kentucky.
“If teams wanna let Tomi shoot 14 threes all night, we’ll sure let him take them,” Underwood told TCR.
Zvonimir Ivisic gave Illinois another needed lift after a quiet start to the season. He hit his first 3-pointer of the year, added three blocks, five rebounds and two steals, and threw down a dunk. That triple was his first since the Big Ten Tournament loss to Wisconsin last season.
Andrej Stojakovic stayed right behind Tomislav on the scoring sheet, finishing with 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go with five rebounds and five assists. He also delivered another emphatic dunk at the rim.
Illinois got more out of its perimeter game after struggling from long range in Tuesday’s loss. The Illini made 38% of their 3-point tries after shooting just 29% from deep against Texas Tech. Sam Houston answered with a 42% clip from beyond the arc, which helped keep the margin within single digits for much of the night.
Still, the game wasn’t clean. Illinois hit only 68% of its free throws, didn’t exactly control the boards and allowed 86 points.
“Something we’re harping on over and over again is just communication,” Illinois guard Andrej Stojakovic told TCR.
Underwood said that part of the floor remains a concern.
“I cannot get this group to talk. Our three best communicators are Tomi, Mirk and Jake.
And two of them are not playing,” Underwood said. “It’s ultimately my responsibility to make sure we get that.”
He was even more direct when asked about the defensive communication issues, especially with the freshmen.
“This is their cell phone. That’s what they look at and they play a video game,” Underwood said.
“I’m amazed that they know the ABCs and how to speak English. They’ve never been asked to talk before, and now it’s our job to help them know what to say…We’re not playing ‘one on Illinois’ defense.
We’re playing one on one, and well, ‘my man didn’t score’, and that’s not what we gotta be.”
Freshman Quentin Coleman didn’t score much, finishing with 11 points, but he filled up the box score with eight rebounds, six assists and four steals. Ethan Brown also chipped in 11 points, hitting 3 of 5 from deep while adding five rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
Providence transfer Stefan Vaaks bounced back after a rough outing against the Red Raiders, where he shot 2-of-10 from 3-point range and made just 2 of 6 free throws. Against Sam Houston, he posted 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and a block, along with several highlight moments.
Illinois now heads to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face No. 2 Duke on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in one of the year’s most anticipated matchups.
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