Injuries and illness didn't slow No. 23 Illinois as it picked up road win in Minneapolis on Saturday.

By IlliniGuys Staff

February 9, 2025

MINNEAPOLIS, Mn. - No. 23 Illinois stopped throwing up errant three-point shots and turned in their most complete game in weeks.

Center Tomislav Ivisic fought through a painful ankle injury to score 18 points while star freshmen Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley combined for 51 points in a 95-74 victory at Minnesota.

Ivisic, who has fought through a mononucleosis diagnosis that forced him to miss two games and now this severely sprained ankle, also grabbed 11 rebounds for his ninth double-double through 21 games, ranking fourth in the Big Ten Conference, tied for 31st in the NCAA overall, and tied for first among power conference underclassmen.

Riley came up strong again, coming off the bench to score a game-high 27 points to lead Illinois in scoring for the fourth game in a row. The Canadian native also had nine rebounds and seven assists with no turnovers in 30 minutes of action.

Jakucionis added 24 in his best performance since missing two games with an injured forearm in early January. It was the ninth 20-point game for the 6-foot-6 guard from Lithuania, breaking Cory Bradford's team freshman record.

Illinois (16-8, 8-6 in Big Ten), entered the night ranked last in the Big Ten in three-point percentage and shooting above 30 percent only twice in the ten games since the record-setting night at Oregon on January 2nd, shot a season-low 16 attempts from beyond the arc, but connected on nine of them for a season-best 56 percent from three.. Their hot outside shooting contributing to an overall 63 percent shooting night.

The Illini also dished out 21 assists, their most against a power conference team season, while committing just six turnovers.

Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn was slowed by the flu bug this week and played only four minutes. Tre White missed the Rutgers game Wednesday night and made only a brief appearance in this one as he continues to battle illness as well.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood is now 9-2 against Minnesota (12-12, 4-9) and has led the Illini to seven-consecutive wins in the series, a streak that began on Jan. 30, 2020. Included in that streak is four straight wins over the Gophers at Williams Arena.

Illinois will return home on Tuesday night to host UCLA at State Farm Center where former All-American center Kofi Cockburn’s jersey is set to be honored before the 7 p.m. CST tip on Peacock.