Illinois outscores Nebraska 58-36 in the second half to secure a berth in the 2024 Big Ten Tournament Final for the first time since winning the event in 2021.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 16, 2024

Terrence Shannon courtesy Joe Pickrell, IlliniGuys

MINNEAPOLIS — Terrence Shannon Jr. can now add the Big Ten Tournament single-game scoring record to his list of accomplishments.

The 23-year-old guard carried No. 13 Illinois into the program’s first league tournament title championship game as the Illini overcame a 15-point deficit to pull off a 98-87 victory on Saturday.

Illinois managed to outscore Nebraska, which was trying to make the program’s first ever Big Ten Tournament Championship Game appearance, 58-36 in the second half to avoid the upset fate suffered earlier on this Target Center court by top seed Purdue.

Shannon finished the day with 40 points on 11 of 22 shooting from the field and 13 of 16 at the foul line in 34 minutes. And when Shannon was making three-pointers or aggressively driving to the basket with the ball, the 6-foot-6 guard was the primary defender running down Nebraska leading scorer Keisei Tominaga on the defensive end.

The semifinal round matchup completely flipped from a momentum standpoint as Nebraska averaged 1.457 points per possession in the first 20 minutes and the Illinois defense clamped down to hold the Cornhuskers to just .947 points per possession.

The inability to get enough defensive stops resulted in Illinois looking like they were going to be sent home one day earlier than planned.

Nebraska shot 57.6 percent from the field in the first half and Illinois’ helpless look as they entered the locker room looking like just another conference tournament upset victim similar to Purdue, Duke, North Carolina and Tennessee earlier this week.

Nebraska found open looks and seven dunks or layups in the first 20 minutes of action where the Cornhuskers (23-10) took a 51-40 halftime advantage into the locker room. In a first half where Nebraska was 6 of 16 from three-point range but 13 of 17 from inside the arc, the Cornhuskers' most dangerous threat, Tominaga was limited to just five points.

Illinois (25-8) relied on the offense and perimeter defense of first-team All-Big Ten selection Terrence Shannon Jr. as the 23-year-old guard totaled 18 points in the first half and was a primary reason Tominaga was the few Nebraska perimeter players that didn’t have their way with the Illini.

Rienk Mast, a 6-foot-10 transfer from Bradley, had 13 points in his first six and a half minutes of action as the pick-and-pop center took advantage of ball screen action to knock down a trio of three-point attempts. However, Mast was controlled to just two points over the final 27 minutes of action.

Brice Williams led Nebraska with 23 points, five rebound and three assists in 35 minutes.

After a frustrating outing against Ohio State on Friday night, Marcus Domask was on triple-double watch for much of the second half as the Wisconsin native will get one more shot at his home state school in the championship game slated to tip on CBS on 2:30 p.m. CBS. Domask finished Saturday with 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Wisconsin is in the tournament final after pulling off a massive overtime upset of Purdue in the first tournament semifinal earlier in the day.