Illinois Basketball Season Comes To Close

The 2016-17 Illinois men's basketball season came to an end Wednesday with a 68-58 loss at UCF in the quarterfinals of the NIT.

Illini senior Malcolm Hill closed his stellar career with 29 points, including a career-high six three-pointers, to finish his Illini career with 1,846 points, third all-time at Illinois.

Jamall Walker went 2-1 as the interim coach for the Illini after replacing John Groce, who was fired after the Big Ten Tournament. Illinois introduced Oklahoma State coach Brad Underwood as its new coach on Monday.

For UCF, B.J. Taylor scored 17 points and Tacko Fall had a double-double to help the Knights advance the final four of the NIT.

A.J. Davis and Matt Williams added 16 points apiece for the Knights (24-11), who play TCU in a semifinal game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Fall had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

UCF was the fourth-seed in the bracket and Illinois (20-15) No. 2 but due to an arena conflict the Fighting Illini couldn't host the game. The Knights took advantage with the first sellout crowd in 10,000-seat CFE Arena history to move within one win of tying for the most in school history.

Both teams had five 3-pointers in the first half but Illinois only had two other baskets, shooting 7 for 26 to fall behind 34-19.

UCF pushed the lead to 19 midway through the second half and was up 52-37 before Malcolm Hill rallied the Illini. Hill hit back-to-back 3-pointers and then made three free throws with 3:14 to play to cut the deficit to six. But Davis made 5 of 6 free throws from there and Taylor was 6 of 8 in the final minute.