Dosunmu's late surge sends Illini past Indiana
Illinois entered its game against Indiana on some kind of roll offensively.
Then the wheels nearly came off ... and very well might have without more heroics from Ayo Dosunmu.
Fresh off scoring 98 points against Penn State, their most in a Big Ten game in 25 years, the Illini climbed to fifth in the country in Kenpom's offensive efficiency, a popular metric used to analyze college basketball teams. It's their highest rating since the 2005 NCAA runners-up had the nation's No. 3 offense.
But Illinois couldn't buy a bucket for large portions of Saturday's matinee in Champaign. The Illini scored a season-low 29 points in the first half, never got in a rhythm at the start of the second, and found themselves down by 5 points with 10 minutes to go.
That's when Dosunmu, the junior preseason All-American guard from Morgan Park, took over. He scored 18 of his game-high 30 points in the final 9:47, and the Illini turned a 49-44 deficit into a 69-60 victory.
Dosunmu made 4 of 5 of his 3-point attempts on a day when guards Adam Miller and Trent Frazier both shot 0-for-4 from the arc.
"Ayo showed why he's the best player in the country," Illini coach Brad Underwood said. "It's a pretty good feeling when you can give the ball to Ayo."
It's the second straight 30-point game for Dosunmu, the only player averaging 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. He's now averaging 24.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists.
He scored his 30 on Saturday efficiently on 17 shots.
"This is my third year in this league so I know pretty well where to get to my spots at, where I can score at," Dosunmu said. "I like letting the game come to me but when it's time to win the game, when it's time to go home, I definitely have that instinct where these next three possessions I'm going to make the right play whether it's scoring, making an assist, helping our team win."
No. 18 Illinois (7-3, 3-1) stayed a half-game behind Northwestern, who earlier Saturday improved to 3-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 1967-68 with a 71-70 win over Ohio State. Indiana fell to 5-4, 0-2.
When Underwood arrived in Champaign, he was known for his outbursts on the sideline. He's made a point to turn that down a notch or three the past couple years, but the fiery side returned during a timeout with 10:01 remaining.
Underwood directed much of his anger at his 7-foot center, and Kofi Cockburn responded with several key plays down the stretch on both ends. Cockburn finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks while limiting Indiana star Trayce Jackson-Davis to 3-of-13 shooting.
"Kofi changed the game on the defensive end," Underwood said. "Kofi became dominant at the defensive end and we got a couple easy baskets."
Senior Da'Monte Williams, who started 9 straight Big Ten games last year without scoring a point, continued his offensive emergence by sinking 2 of 3 from the arc, now 16 for 22 on the season.
Backup big Giorgi Bezhanishvili also provided a spark, hitting a 3 during the comeback, and threading some high-low passes into Cockburn.
"We don't win the game without Giorgi tonight," said Underwood, glad to see the Illini grind out a game that wasn't often pretty. "There's a lot of ways to win a game and this team is stating to figure that out. Tonight was a completely different ballgame but we will sure take the outcome."