An ugly day in Champaign ended with No. 13 Illinois (12-4, 4-2) falling to the USC Trojans (10-6, 2-3) 82-72. With freshman guard Kasparas Jakučionis still out, Illinois struggled mightily on offense in a messy defeat. The win was the Trojans’ first over a ranked opponent on the road since 2010.
Slow start
An 11 a.m. tip-off in Champaign was the equivalent of a 9 a.m. start for the Trojans, but they didn’t look affected at all. The Illini were the ones sleepwalking through the 40-minute game and faced an early nine-point deficit.
USC took a 19-10 lead early in the first half behind some unlikely three-point shooting. It hasn’t been a good shooting team this year, and Illinois made a point to guard the paint and leave guys like graduate student forward Rashaun Agee open from three.
The Chicago native entered the game shooting just 25% from deep, but he knocked down two early long-range shots to extend the USC lead. He finished with three makes from deep, surpassing his combined season total.
Junior guard Desmond Claude also fueled the hot Trojan start. The team’s leading scorer doesn’t shoot many threes, but he found his way into the paint quite a bit on Saturday afternoon. Claude recorded 10 points while only sitting for a couple of seconds in the first half.
Old trends emerge
Turnovers plagued Illinois at the beginning of the season, but it has cleaned up the offensive side of the ball since then. The offense has been clicking lately, scoring 90+ points in two of its last three games, but it was a sloppy start early against USC.
Seven turnovers — with most coming early on — put Illinois in its first-half hole. Junior guard Kylan Boswell and sophomore guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn both had more pressure to handle the ball in Jakučionis’ absence, and they had some early blunders.
Instant impact
Despite a couple of turnovers, Gibbs-Lawhorn affected the game immediately, along with sophomore forward Jake Davis. Each entered the affair with Illinois struggling and contributed right away.
Both sophomores ran the floor well and scored six first-half points. They also had individual highlight moments on the defensive end. Davis had blocked a behind-the-back pass attempt from USC, and Gibbs-Lawhorn poked several balls away while guarding 94 feet.
Notes
At the end of the day, USC just wanted this game more. It was more tough down low, and Illinois was never able to take over the game. After several strong outings in a row, Illinois was unrecognizable with its lack of physicality.
Claude was able to do whatever he wanted on Saturday. The transfer averaged 16.6 points per game a year ago at Xavier and showed why against Illinois. It was a mix of lazy defense and a lack of a proper game plan to stop the USC guard. Either way, he couldn’t be stopped. He finished with a season-high 31 points on an efficient 12-20 from the field to lead the game.
Part of the reason for Claude’s explosion was Illinois’ best defender picking up an early third foul. Boswell has been lockdown all year, but he was forced to play less physical defense than usual for much of the second half. Even then, the Champaign native came close to picking up his fourth several times in the midst of a rough game.
Boswell was 0-5 from three-point range and had six turnovers in this one. With their main ball handlers struggling or out with injury, the Illini had a hard time finding any offensive consistency.
One positive from the loss was Illinois’ takeaway ability. It recorded 10 combined steals and blocks, which set Illinois up well in the fast break. Unfortunately for Illinois, the offensive side of the ball didn’t treat the hosts well. The Illini shot 23-62 from the field and 7-32 from three.
Illinois has two days off before traveling to Bloomington, Indiana for a big matchup on Tuesday.
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