Kylan Boswell scored 22 points and backcourt mate Kasparas Jakucionis added 21 as No. 19 Illinois racked up 60 first-half points to spark a 94-69 Big Ten rout of Indiana Tuesday night in Bloomington, Ind.
Tomislav Ivisic posted 17 points and 11 rebounds and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added 12 points as the Illini (13-4, 5-2) recovered from Saturday’s 10-point home loss to Southern California that came without Jakucionis. Illinois owned a 51-37 advantage on the boards.
Oumar Ballo led Indiana (13-5, 4-3) with 16 points and 15 rebounds before being ejected with 2:24 to go. Luke Goode, who played the previous three years at Illinois, contributed 13 points and Myles Rice scored 12.
The Hoosiers, who played without leading scorer Malik Reneau for the fourth full game, missed their first 13 3-point tries before hitting their first with 5:50 left in the game.
The game featured three separate incidents that merited flagrant or technical fouls, including a scuffle under the basket with 2:24 to go after Goode was whistled for his fifth foul while flying into Ivisic to box him out. Multiple shoves were exchanged as coaches from both teams helped separate the angry players.
It took six minutes for the referees to give Ivisic a technical for taunting, Rice a dead-ball contact technical, Ballo a flagrant 2 technical for shoving Ivisic and Gibbs-Lawhorn a contact technical for shoving Ballo.
Prior to the altercation, Jakucionis was the story as he scored 19 points in the first half – and he wasted no time making up for the two games he missed due to a left forearm injury.
Wearing a black wrap and a pad to protect the injury, Jakucionis swished a 3-pointer on Illinois’ first possession, powered his way for a layup on the second, fed Ivisic for a layup on the third and drilled another 3-pointer on the fourth to send Illinois to a 10-6 lead in the opening 2:25.
The Hoosiers started hot by hitting four of their first seven shots, but then missed nine in a row as the Illini seized command. The visitors did their damage from beyond the arc, hitting eight first-half threes to open up a 60-32 lead at the break.
Indiana rattled off the first 10 points of the second half to close within 18, but Illinois steadied itself and later orchestrated its own 10-0 run to take a 30-point lead with 7:34 left.
