No. 3 Illinois spent the second half in Lubbock clawing back from the kind of hole that usually ends a night before it really starts, but the Illini still walked out with an 84-78 loss to No. 16 Texas Tech on Tuesday.
The first half was a mess for Illinois, which was playing its first road game of the season and looked rattled from the opening possession. Tomislav Ivisic got posterized on the game’s first play, and that set the tone for a rough opening 20 minutes. Illinois turned it over 11 times before halftime, lost the rebounding battle, and shot just 4-for-16 from 3-point range while falling behind 49-29.
Brad Underwood didn’t sugarcoat what he saw from his team early.
“I thought we melted when we got a little bit of pressure and a little bit of adversity.”
Texas Tech fed off the crowd and the chaos. Hofstra transfer Cruz Davis and former Illini Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn both made life miserable for Illinois in the first half, combining for 13 points while shooting better than 50% from the field. The Red Raiders also kept finding open looks from deep, and Illinois had no answer for the pace of the game.
Then the second half arrived, and Illinois looked like a different team.
The Illini tightened up defensively, took better care of the ball and started winning the physical battles that had gone against them all night. They chipped away at the deficit until it was down to four midway through the second half, then got it all the way to one with five minutes left. For a stretch, it felt like the crowd was the one getting squeezed.
“There’s a reason we play these games,” Underwood said. “We learned a lot about ourselves.”
But Illinois never quite finished the job. Texas Tech answered with the timely baskets it needed and kept attacking the glass, finishing with a 43-32 rebounding edge. JaMicheal Stillwell was a major part of that, collecting six offensive rebounds and 11 boards overall.
“We’ve gotta make winning plays,” Underwood said. “Part of making winning plays is rebounding the basketball and we weren’t very good at that tonight.”
The Red Raiders pushed the lead back to eight with two minutes remaining, and Illinois ran out of comeback runway. Free throws were a major reason the rally fell short. The Illini went just 8-for-19 from the line, a number Underwood couldn’t ignore.
“I don’t know in my lifetime if I’ve ever had a team go 8-for-20 from the free-throw line,” Underwood said. “We were third in the country last year.”
Quentin Coleman and Andrej Stojakovic powered the second-half push, combining for 28 points after the break. Stojakovic finished with 18 points, three rebounds and three assists, while Coleman posted 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Tomislav Ivisic added 14 points, six rebounds and three assists, and Stefan Vaaks had 10 points but struggled from long range and at the stripe, going 2-for-10 from 3 and 2-for-6 on free throws.
For Texas Tech, Cruz Davis led the way with 20 points, three rebounds and five assists. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scored 15 points with two rebounds and three assists, Donovan Atwell added 13 points and JaMichael Stillwell finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Illinois returns home to face Sam Houston State at State Farm Center in Champaign on Friday, Nov. 13 at 6:00 p.m. before heading back on the road for a matchup with No. 2 Duke on Nov. 17.
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