<body><div>Illinois is a second-half team.CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A little too close for comfort.In the first ever meeting between the two teams, No. 3 Illinois took care of Sam Houston State at State Farm Center Friday night with an 108-86 win after its first loss of the season Tuesday night in Lubbock.Despite a messy first-half showing from Illinois that featured one too many missed layups and defensive breakdowns, the second half performance was enough for the Illini to pull away and win decisively.“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.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4AUjBs_1H4NgUyP00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4AUjBs_1H4NgUyP00" width="1200" height="800" ></figure>Big man Tomislav Ivisic carried over the momentum from his 14-point game on Tuesday and put up a career-high 28 points, his third double-digit point total this season. He carried the Illini from range, knocking down 6-of-14 3-pointers. It’s clear his confidence is building: the last time he shot even close to that many threes 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.His twin brother Zvonimir produced a much needed bounce-back game after a slow start to the season, knocking down his first 3-pointer of the season, snagging three blocks, five rebounds, two steals and flushing a jam home. Zvonimir’s 3-pointer was also his first 3-point make since the Big Ten Tournament loss to Wisconsin last season.Illinois as a whole improved from range after shooting just 29% from three in Tuesday’s loss, nailing 38% of attempted triples in the win. Sam Houston was making it rain too, though, going 42% from distance—a big reason why they kept Illinois’ lead within single digits for majority of the game.However, they didn’t quite improve in some other areas. The Illini shot 68% from the free-throw line, didn’t necessarily dominate the glass and allowed the Bearkats to score 86 points.“Something we’re harping on over and over again is just communication,” Illinois guard Andrej Stojakovic told TCR.Underwood expressed his concern on that end.“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.”When asked about the root of the communication issues on defense, specifically for the freshmen, Underwood did not hold back.“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.”To no surprise, Stojakovic followed right behind Tomislav Ivisic on offense for the Illini, charging the basket to tally 26 points and yet another superman jam.Despite only racking up 11 points, freshman Quentin Coleman impacted the game in other areas, with eight rebounds, six assists and *four* steals.After a subpar performance against the Red Raiders, where he shot 2-of-10 from the 3-point line and knocked down just 2-of-6 free throws, Providence transfer Stefan Vaaks came out of the gates with something to prove, tallying 14 points and multiple highlight plays, with this being one of them:Illinois:<ul><li>Andrej Stojakovic: 26 points, 10-of-16 FG, five rebounds, five assists</li><li>Stefan Vaaks: 14 points, 6-of-11 FG, three rebounds, three assists, one block</li><li>Tomislav Ivisic: 28 points, 10-of-21 FG, 6-of-14 3FG, five rebounds</li><li>Quentin Coleman: 11 points, 4-of-7 FG, eight rebounds, six assists, four steals</li><li>Ethan Brown: 11 points, 3-of-5 3FG, five rebounds, seven assists, three steals</li></ul>Sam Houston:<ul><li>Yoda Oke: 14 points, 4-5 3FG</li><li>Aidan McDowell: 19 points, 7-13 FG</li><li>Justin Begg: 19 points, 10 assists</li></ul>No. 3 Illinois travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on No. 2 Duke on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in one of the most highly anticipated marquee matchups all year.</div></body>

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A little too close for comfort. In the first ever meeting between the two teams, No. 3 Illinois took care of Sam Houston State at State Farm Center Friday night with an 108-86 win after its first loss of the season Tuesday night in Lubbock. Despite...

No. 3 Illinois pulls past Sam Houston after messy first half

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A little too close for comfort. In the first ever meeting between the two teams, No. 3 Illinois took care of Sam Houston State at State F

No. 3 Illinois pulls past Sam Houston after messy first half

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