By IlliniGuys Staff

February 1, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

LINCOLN, Neb. - Keaton Wagler scored 23 of his 28 points in the second half and 9th ranked Illinois clamped down on defense to stun No. 5 Nebraska 78-69 and claim a share of first place in the Big Ten conference.

Illinois (19-3, 10-1 in Big Ten) scores consecutive road wins over teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 5 for the first time in program history. They defeated then-4th ranked Purdue 88-82 on January 24th in West Lafayette.

The Illini have now won 11 in a row and improve to 6-0 in Big Ten road games this season.

Nebraska closed the first half on a 14-2 run to turn a 31-25 Illinois lead into a 39-33 Huskers advantage. The home team, trying to remain perfect at their home Pinnacle Arena this season, hit four three pointers in that stretch. They drained 11 of 20 treys in the first half.

But Illinois turned things around in the second half, thanks to Wagler. The reigning Big Ten Player and Freshman of the Week, who scored a career-high 46 points at Purdue eight days ago, struggled against a physical Huskers defense in the opening 20 minutes, shooting just 2-of-9 from the field.  Wagler responded by scoring 13 of Illinois' final 20 points to hand the Huskers (20-2, 9-2 in Big Ten) their second straight loss after starting the season with a school-record 20 straight wins.

"In the second half, we settled in and found some matchups we liked and (Wagler) just made plays", Illini head coach Brad Underwood told the Fox Sports broadcast team after the game.

Wagler also had five rebounds and five assists. Jake Davis scored 13 points as he started in place of Kylan Boswell, who missed his fourth straight game healing from a broken right hand. Tomislav Ivisic scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half while finishing with a team-high 8 rebounds. David Mirkovic added 10 points.

Brendan Frager led Nebraska with 20 points. Pryce Sandfort, the Iowa transfer who torched the Illini for 32 points and was 6-of-11 from three-point range, managed just 16 points. The Huskers sharpshooter hit four three-pointers on his way to 14 points in the first half, but was held to only two points in the second half as the Illini outscored Nebraska 45-30 after intermission.

As a team, Nebraska ran out of magic in their outside shooting. The Huskers connected on just four three-point field goals in the second half and none in the final six minutes of the game.

Illinois returns home to host Northwestern Wednesday night (8pm CT, BTN). The Illini beat the Wildcats 79-68 in Evanston on January 13th.

Stay with IlliniGuys.com for complete postgame coverage from Lincoln.