{"id":1086,"date":"2024-12-23T11:49:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T17:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thexradio3.com\/news\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2024-12-23T11:50:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T17:50:37","slug":"illinois-brings-braggin-rights-back-to-champaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/1086-illinois-brings-braggin-rights-back-to-champaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Brings Braggin&#8217; Rights Back To Champaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>By University of Illinois<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ST. LOUIS<b><strong> \u2013&nbsp;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Fighting Illini are bringing Braggin&#8217; Rights back to Champaign.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/kasparas-jakucionis\/14521\" data-airgap-id=\"54\">Kasparas Jakucionis<\/a>&nbsp;made the game-winning basket with 28 seconds remaining to clinch Illinois&#8217; 80-77 victory over Missouri on Sunday afternoon in St. Louis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jakucionis posted his sixth-consecutive 20-point effort, finishing with a game-high 21 points. He also made three 3-pointers, dished out four assists, and went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/kylan-boswell\/14523\" data-airgap-id=\"55\">Kylan Boswell<\/a>&nbsp;scored 16 points while going 11-for-12 from the charity stripe, with all 11 made free throws coming in the second half. Boswell also corralled nine rebounds and totaled five assists and a steal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/tomislav-ivisic\/14520\" data-airgap-id=\"56\">Tomislav Ivisic<\/a>&nbsp;secured his sixth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and he also made two blocks.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite fouling out late,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/tre-white\/14524\" data-airgap-id=\"57\">Tre White<\/a>&nbsp;ended the afternoon with 13 points and eight rebounds while shooting 5-for-7 from the field.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/morez-johnson-jr-\/14517\" data-airgap-id=\"58\">Morez Johnson Jr.<\/a>&nbsp;poured in six points off the bench, while five of his eight rebounds came on the offensive glass.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Fighting Illini went 22-for-23 from the free-throw line, and they took advantage of their dominance on the glass by scoring 13 second-chance points on 12 offensive boards. The Orange and Blue won the overall rebounding battle, 42-30.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tigers jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead just over three minutes into the game, but the Illini answered with an 8-0 run en route to their first lead of the afternoon. Jakucionis knocked down a 3-pointer to start that two-minute span before burying another triple with a hand in his face and as the shot clock expired to give the Orange and Blue a 10-7 edge.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A back-and-forth battle saw Illinois&#8217; advantage grow to six, but a 12-2 Missouri run put the Tigers in front, 28-24, with 5:48 left to play in the first half.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An 8-0 Illini run, which featured four points apiece for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/morez-johnson-jr-\/14517\" data-airgap-id=\"59\">Morez Johnson Jr.<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/tre-white\/14524\" data-airgap-id=\"60\">Tre White<\/a>, sent the Orange and Blue back in front, 32-28, with under three minutes remaining in the opening frame.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 4-0 Tiger run tied the game with two minutes to go, but the Illini scored the final five points of the half to go into the break with a 37-32 advantage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jakucionis scored in double figures in his 17 minutes of first-half action, while four different players registered a trey in the first half. The Illini capitalized on their dominance on the boards, scoring nine second-chance points on nine offensive rebounds through the first period of play.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Holding the Tigers without a field goal for over four minutes to start the final frame, the Orange and Blue extended their edge to eight, 42-34, during that stretch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Missouri cut its deficit to three points with just under 14 minutes left, but Illinois countered by scoring the next four points to take a 51-44 advantage and force a Tiger timeout with 13:03 remaining, a stretch that brought the Orange and Blue faithful to their feet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 7-2 Missouri run after the stoppage cut into the Illinois lead. 90 seconds later, the Illini pieced together a 10-2 scoring stretch to establish a 67-57 edge, their first double-digit lead of the day, with six-and-a-half minutes to play.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tigers took their first lead of the second half following an 11-0 run over the next two minutes, but an and-1 layup from White swung the advantage back in the Orange and Blue&#8217;s favor, 70-68, wih four minutes to go.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the game knotted at 72 with just over two minutes left to play, Jakucionis made his third 3-pointer to put the Illini in front once again. The Tigers responded with a triple of their own to level the game at 75 before two free throws from each team saw the score even at 77 with 45 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Illini retook the lead on their ensuing possession, with Jakucionis hitting a fadeaway jumper to give the Orange and Blue a 79-77 edge with 28 seconds to go. After getting a stop on the defensive end of the floor, Illinois made one of two free throws to push its advantage to 80-77 with eight seconds left to play.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Missouri missed what would have been a game-tying 3-pointer as time expired as the Illini secured the rivalry win in a back-and-forth battle at the Enterprise Center.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Illinois returns to State Farm Center on Dec. 29 for its final home nonconference contest of the regular season, with the Fighting Illini hosting Chicago State for a sold-out 1 p.m. CT tilt.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By University of Illinois ST. LOUIS \u2013&nbsp;The Fighting Illini are bringing Braggin&#8217; Rights back to Champaign. Kasparas Jakucionis&nbsp;made the game-winning basket with 28 seconds remaining to clinch Illinois&#8217; 80-77 victory [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Illinois Brings Braggin&#039; Rights Back To Champaign - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/1086-illinois-brings-braggin-rights-back-to-champaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Illinois Brings Braggin&#039; 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