By IlliniGuys Staff

March 2, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Tre White posted 19 points and 11 rebounds in his first double-double in two months as Illinois systematically took apart 15th ranked Michigan 93-73 Sunday afternoon.

The rout sends a message that the Illini are ready to make a run in the upcoming Big Ten and NCAA tournaments as they put together their best effort since routing Indiana 94-69 back on January 11th.

Illinois (19-11, 11-8 in Big Ten) have battled through illness and a number of injuries since then, but are finally the healthiest they have been, with only freshman power forward Morez Johnson Jr. still out with a broken wrist.

The Illini expected to miss him against a Wolverines front line boasting 7-footers Vladimir Goldin and Danny Wolf, but instead dominated the boards 43-32. That includes 19 offensive rebounds, their most against a power conference team all season. It was the first time that Illinois, one of the top rebounding teams in the country, topped 4o rebounds in their last eight games.

Illinois shot 61 percent from the field in the second half as they scored 63 points after halftime, building on a one-point lead at intermission into a 20-point bulge that they maintained for the final six minutes of the game.

It was an offensive display that was a complete turnaround from last weekend, when Illinois misfired from the three-point arc by making only 2-of-26 attempts in suffering the program's worst ever loss in a 110-67 defeat to then-3rd ranked Duke. The Illini went 14-of-37 against the Wolverines, their most three-point makes since bombarding Oregon with 16 treys in a 32-point rout on January 2nd.

White, who did not play at all despite being available in the loss to Michigan State two weeks ago, is averaging 16 points per game while shooting 63 percent from the field in the last three games.

Kylan Boswell just missed a double-double of his own with 17 points and nine rebounds. Kasparas Jakucionis added 17 points with six rebounds and four assists while committing only two turnovers.  The 6-foot-6 freshman has just three turnovers combined in his last two games, his best ball-handling stretch since mid-January.

Fellow freshman Will Riley added 13 points in making his second straight start as Illinois runs its winning streak over Michigan to nine games, dating back to December 2019.

Illinois improves to 10-0 when scoring 90 points or more this season.

Goldin was the only player scoring in double figures for Michigan (22-7, 14-4) with 22 points and seven rebounds.

The Illini, which had four days of rest between games this week, is now off until next Friday when they host Purdue in their home finale, trying to close out the regular season with three straight wins. That's an 7pm CST tipoff on FOX.

Stay with IlliniGuys.com for more postgame coverage.