Matthew Mayer scored a game-high 21 points Saturday and No. 18 Illinois survived a scoring drought of nearly nine minutes in the second half to stop Alabama A&M 68-47 in nonconference play at Champaign, Ill.
Terrence Shannon Jr. added 18 for the Fighting Illini (8-3), which nearly blew a 17-point second half lead before overpowering their Southwestern Athletic Conference foe in the final 10 minutes.
Garrett Hicks scored 13 points and reserve Messiah Thompson added 12 for the Bulldogs (3-7), which rattled off 16 straight points and pulled within 38-37 after Dailin Smith canned a pair of foul shots with 10:52 left.
But Illinois finally got going to avoid what would have been a staggering upset. Consecutive layups by Mayer gave them a 44-37 advantage with 8:47 remaining. A transition layup by Mayer with 5:35 remaining upped the margin to 53-39, capping a 15-2 spurt that sealed the outcome.
Alabama A&M didn’t have enough firepower to consistently score on the Illini defense. It made just 6 of 30 shots in the first half and canned only 30.4 percent for the day. Illinois controlled the boards 46-33, scoring 14 points off 16 offensive rebounds.
The pregame storyline was how Illinois would respond after a listless performance in a 74-59 Big Ten loss at home to Penn State on Dec. 10. Coach Brad Underwood ripped into his team after the game, calling out its lack of leadership.
He got the response he was looking for in the first half, when the Illini were the better team by a lot on both ends of the floor. Mayer sank a couple of 3-pointers before the first TV timeout and Illinois established a 14-7 lead.
The margin continued to grow as the Illini used their size advantage to full advantage on both ends. They led in double figures for most of the last 14 minutes of the half, stretching the margin to 36-19 at intermission when Coleman Hawkins made a pair of foul shots with 1:17 left.
–Field Level Media
