Will Riley scores 24, No. 18 Illinois mounts late comeback to beat Ohio State 87-79

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- — Will Riley scored 20 of his 24 points in the second half and No. 18 Illinois rallied from an 11-point deficit to beat Ohio State 87-79 on Sunday.

Morez Johnson Jr. had 14 points and 15 rebounds, Kylan Boswell had 14 points, Tomislav Ivisic had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn had 10 points for the Illini (15-7, 7-5 Big Ten), who went on a 15-point run over a five-minute stretch late in the second half.

Devin Royal scored 29 points — 19 in the first half — for Ohio State (13-9, 5-6), which had a three-game winning streak snapped. Bruce Thornton had 22 points and John Mobley Jr. had 18 points.

Ivisic, Illinois’ No. 2 scorer and leading rebounder, returned to action after missing three games with mononucleosis. He played 29 minutes.

Takeaways

Illinois: The Illini shot 10 of 42 on 3-pointers Thursday in a disappointing overtime loss to Nebraska, which had lost six straight. Illinois was just 4 of 20 on triples against Ohio State, but outrebounded the Buckeyes 43-31 and dominated points in the paint 52-30.

Ohio State: The Buckeyes’ three-game winning streak could have been a lot longer. They lost three in a row by a total of five points before ending the skid with a win Jan. 21 at No. 10 Purdue.

Key moment

Illinois had a nearly seven-minute field goal drought in the first half and fell behind 34-25. The rest of the game was an uphill battle for the Illini until their 15-point run, which began with about seven minutes to go. Illinois led for less than 10 minutes.

Key stat

Illinois’ bench outscored Ohio State’s bench 43-4.

Up next

Illinois is at Rutgers on Wednesday night while Ohio State hosts Maryland on Thursday night.

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