{"id":24021,"date":"2025-12-01T06:32:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=24021"},"modified":"2025-12-01T06:32:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:32:38","slug":"illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Illini Men&#8217;s Basketball Team Falls To UConn"},"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><strong>BY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK \u2013 Kylan Boswell scored a game-high 25 points and combined with Tomislav Ivisic, on his way to a double-double, to lead #13 Illinois&#8217; second-half comeback effort. But it was not enough to overcome a cold-shooting performance by the Orange and Blue in a 74-61 loss to #5 UConn on Black Friday at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n<p>Boswell shot 8-for-16 from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers, and knocked down all seven of his free-throw attempts. The Illini as a team, however, shot a season-worst 31.7% (19-60) from the field and posted a team-low with 20.7% (6-29) from 3-point range.<\/p>\n<p>After connecting on four of the their first seven attempts from beyond the arc, the Illini missed 11 straight in 17-minute stretch of game action that spanned halftime, and finished with just two makes from distance \u2013 one each from Boswell and Ivisic \u2013 during the team&#8217;s second half comeback effort.<\/p>\n<p>Ivisic was limited to just 2 points and 2 rebounds in the first period, but bounced back to post nine points (including 4-4 FTs) and eight rebounds in the second half on his way to record his first double-double of the season.<\/p>\n<p>UConn used a 10-0 run to build a double-digit lead, 23-12, at the 12-minute mark of the first half. Boswell kept the Illini within striking distance and the team went into halftime trailing 43-32.<\/p>\n<p>Out of the break, the Illini were held without a field goal for the first 7 minutes, but hit eight free-throws before Boswell&#8217;s triple at the 12:40 mark pulled them within 14 points, 57-43. UConn used a quick 7-0 run to reach their biggest lead of 21 points, 64-43 at the midway point of the second half.<\/p>\n<p>Boswell (5 points) and Ivisic (6) combined to lead the Illini on an 11-0 scoring run that pulled the team back within, 64-54, with just more than 5 minutes to play. The Illini held the Huskies without points for nearly 5 minutes during that run.<\/p>\n<p>Ivisic&#8217;s 3-pointer at the 2:56 mark cut the Illini deficit to just 7 points, 59-66, before a controversial four-point play by the Huskies all but stifled the Illini&#8217;s comeback effort.<\/p>\n<p>The Illini defense forced an errant shot off the backboard by UConn&#8217;s Alex Karaban with less than 4 seconds on the shot clock, which was erroneously reset to 20 as the offensive rebound was cleared out to Malachi Smith with 2 seconds left. Smith then drew contact against Jake Davis on a 3-point heave that banked in before he hit a free-throw to give the Huskies a 70-59 lead. The officials reviewed the shot clock error but determined that Smith&#8217;s attempt would have fallen within the duration of the original shot clock.<\/p>\n<p>The four-point play thwarted the Illini&#8217;s late push, as the team&#8217;s exchanged free throws in the final 77 seconds to close out the game.<\/p>\n<p>#13 Illinois now turns its attention to another neutral-court, ranked showdown vs. #17 Tennessee on Saturday, Dec. 6, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. (7 p.m. CT \/ ESPN).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS NEW YORK \u2013 Kylan Boswell scored a game-high 25 points and combined with Tomislav Ivisic, on his way to a double-double, to lead #13 Illinois&#8217; second-half [&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":[49],"class_list":["post-24021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball","tag-sports-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Illini Men&#039;s Basketball Team Falls To UConn - 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\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Illini Men&#039;s Basketball Team Falls To UConn - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-01T12:32:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-01T12:32:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Millie Lange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Millie Lange\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Millie Lange\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0ecf2a966f6bc51e38a364270d9d4aa2\"},\"headline\":\"Illini Men&#8217;s Basketball Team Falls To UConn\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-01T12:32:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-01T12:32:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":496,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Sports Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Basketball\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/\",\"name\":\"Illini Men's Basketball Team Falls To UConn - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-01T12:32:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-01T12:32:38+00:00\",\"description\":\"Effingham's News and Sports Leader\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Illini Men&#8217;s Basketball Team Falls To UConn\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"width\":272,\"height\":69,\"caption\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0ecf2a966f6bc51e38a364270d9d4aa2\",\"name\":\"Millie Lange\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/millie-lange\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Illini Men's Basketball Team Falls To UConn - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Illini Men's Basketball Team Falls To UConn - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","og_description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/","og_site_name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","article_published_time":"2025-12-01T12:32:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-01T12:32:38+00:00","author":"Millie Lange","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Millie Lange","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/"},"author":{"name":"Millie Lange","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/0ecf2a966f6bc51e38a364270d9d4aa2"},"headline":"Illini Men&#8217;s Basketball Team Falls To UConn","datePublished":"2025-12-01T12:32:15+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-01T12:32:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/"},"wordCount":496,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Sports Featured"],"articleSection":["Basketball"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/","name":"Illini Men's Basketball Team Falls To UConn - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-12-01T12:32:15+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-01T12:32:38+00:00","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/24021-illini-mens-basketball-team-falls-to-uconn\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Illini Men&#8217;s Basketball Team Falls To UConn"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","width":272,"height":69,"caption":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/0ecf2a966f6bc51e38a364270d9d4aa2","name":"Millie Lange","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/author\/millie-lange\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Millie Lange","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24023,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021\/revisions\/24023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}