By IlliniGuys Stafff

January 5, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

SEATTLE, Wash. - The Illini did more than win a pair of games on their first West Coast trip in the new-look Big Ten.

They also learned there's more than one way to win a game in a tough road environment.

Kasparas Jakucionis delivered the game-winning layup with 32 seconds left, then added a pair of free throws as 22nd ranked Illinois survived the upset by a determined Washington team, 81-77 Sunday afternoon.

The game marked the Illini's first game in Alaska Airlines Arena since December, 1927, when the team took a cross-country train to serve as the first-ever opponent in the brand-new University of Washington Pavilion. They lost two of three games to the Huskies over a 4-day period.

Illinois (11-3, 3-1 in Big Ten Conference) made Division I history in their first game of this trip Thursday night when they walloped 9th ranked Oregon 109-77 for the largest road win ever as an Ass0ciated Press top ten-ranked team.  The Illini draining a season high-tying 16 three pointers to propel the easy victory.

But they left their long-range marksmenship in Eugene. Illinois managed to connect on just 5 of 26 attempts from the arc, leaving the door open for a Huskies team that surprised visiting Maryland just three nights earlier.

Illinois built a 27-10 lead as Washington (10-5, 1-3) missed their first eight three-point attempts. But DJ Davis keyed the comeback with a career-high and season Big Ten-best seven three-pointers as the Huskies clawed their way back.

The Illini held a 75-73 lead with 52 seconds left when confusion on an out-of-bounds play resulted in a Luis Kortright layup and a tie game. That set up Jakucionis' heroics, his second game-winning basket in the past four games after his late jumper beat Missouri in the Braggin' Rights game on December 22nd.

The freshman finished with a game-high 18 points to go with six assists and five rebounds, but just as importantly only three turnovers. Jakucionis has 16 assists with just six turnovers combined in the last three games.

Tre White had 17 points and seven rebounds while Kylan Boswell scored all 14 of his points in the second half.

Davis finished with a career-high 31 points for Washington.

Illinois returns to action with a pair of home games this week as Penn State (8pm CST, BTN) visits Wednesday night before a Saturday morning game against USC.

Stay with IlliniGuys.com for more postgame coverage.