Led by freshman guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn’s game-high 18 points, No. 25 Illinois shrugged off icy shooting in the first half to roll to an 80-52 nonconference victory over Eastern Illinois on Monday night in Champaign, Ill.
The contest was the season opener for both teams.
Gibbs-Lawhorn hit 7 of 10 shots from the field in his 20 minutes off the bench. Illinois All-Big Ten returnee Terrence Shannon Jr. added 16 points and five rebounds while Luke Goode contributed nine points on 3-of-5 3-point shooting as Illinois routed Eastern Illinois in the season opener for the second year in a row.
Eastern Illinois, which played without top returning scorer Caleb Donaldson, received 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds from Toledo transfer Kooper Jakobi. Starting point guard Tiger Booker added nine points, but he canned just 2 of 13 shots as the Panthers finished at 29 percent from the field.
Eastern Illinois led for much of the first half as Illinois, which ranked last in the Big Ten and 340th in the country last season with its 30.8 percent 3-point accuracy, missed 13 of its first 14 3-point tries and six of its first eight free-throw attempts.
The Panthers built a 15-6 lead in the first seven minutes as Booker cashed a 3-pointer and a driving layup on back-to-back possessions. Illinois pulled within 15-13 on a Ty Rodgers layup, but former Illini center Jermaine Hamlin pulled off slick post moves on consecutive possessions to restore a 19-14 advantage.
From that point forward, the Panthers struggled to score while the Illini finally ignited their transition game. Gibbs-Lawhorn reeled off six straight points in a 53-second stretch — notching a putback, a driving scoop off the glass and a breakaway dunk — to give Illinois a 21-19 edge that forced Eastern Illinois to call a timeout with 7:13 left in the half.
The Panthers stayed close until the final two minutes of the half as Shannon sank two 3-pointers and Goode added a third to stake Illinois to a 37-25 lead at the break.
Shannon started the second half equally hot as he slashed for a lefty scoop and swished a 3-pointer from the wing in the opening minute. When Rodgers added a layup on Illinois’ next possession, that made the score 44-25 and capped a 17-0 spree over a 4-minute, 25-second stretch bridging the halves.
Eastern Illinois never got closer than 16 points the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media