By IlliniGuys Staff

November 7, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Kylan Boswell stepped off the plane last February after Illinois suffered its worst loss in program history vowing that things would be different. He scored a career-high 24 points in the next game against Iowa.

The senior guard took it to another level Friday night.

Boswell poured in a career-high 31 points to go with 10 rebounds for his first career double-double as 17th ranked Illinois drilled visiting Florida Gulf Coast 113-70

The Illini made school history by scoring 100 points in their first two games of the season for the first time. They came close in November, 2020 when they put up 122 points against North Carolina A&T and 97 on Chicago State. The 226 combined points in their first two games is another program history, breaking the previous mark set in 2020.

Illinois (2-0) was missing four key players for the second time in as many games this season. Brandon Lee, Mihailo Petrovic, and Ty Rodgers have all yet to see action this season, but they were joined on the sidelines by starting center Tomislav Ivisic, who suffered an apparent knee injury in practice this week.

His twin brother Zvonimir took his place in the starting lineup and blocked a career-high 7 shots, which ties for second in school history behind the 11 recorded by Derek Holcomb in December, 1978. Ivisic added 16 points and 9 rebounds.

The Illini star freshman duo of David Mirkovic and Keaton Wagler showed their opening night performance wasn't a fluke. Mirkovic had 17 points and 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season and Wagler scored a career-high 22 points with 7 rebounds.

The game marked the Illinois debut of Andrej Stojakovic. The former 5-star high school prospect, who played his first two seasons at Stanford and Cal before joining the Illini program this summer, has been battling a bone bruise for the past several weeks.  The 6-foot-7 forward scored 9 points with 5 rebounds and 3 assists in 22 minutes off the bench.

Boswel, who became just the 7th Illini to record a triple-double last December against Chicago State, scored six of his points early to propel Illinois to an 18-1 lead.  He had 18 points at halftime before going to the bench in the second half after just 28 minutes of action.

Illinois shot 56 percent from the field and dominated the boards again, grabbing 51 rebounds to 30 for the Eagles.

J.R. Konieczny led Florida Gulf Coast (1-1) with 26 points.

Illinois returns to action Tuesday night against 10th ranked Texas Tech (7:30 CST, FS1) in their biggest challenge to date this season.