Illinois was not letting its shot at a Candy 16 berth go right down to the wire.
The Illini completely rolled over No. 11 Duquesne of their second-round NCAA event matchup on Saturday evening. They cruised to a dominant 89-63 win over the Dukes on the CHI Well being Heart in Omaha, Nebraska, to formally safe their first journey to the Candy 16 since 2005.
Illinois wasted no time Saturday. The Illini took the lead from the leap, after which broke it open on a 25-7 run to all of a sudden seize a 21-point lead within the opening minutes of the primary half. They took a 24-point lead into halftime and put up 50 factors whereas capturing almost 67% from the sphere as a gaggle.
By then, the Dukes had been just too far out of it. Illinois held on within the remaining 20 minutes to take the 26-point blowout win with none situation.
Jimmy Clark led Duquesne with 14 factors and 4 assists within the loss. Fousseyni Drame added 13 factors. They had been the one two Dukes gamers to hit double figures. Clark led the Dukes down the stretch to push them to their first NCAA event win in additional than 50 years on Thursday afternoon after they beat No. 6 BYU within the opening spherical. That stored head coach Keith Dambrot, who was LeBron James’ highschool coach, round for one more sport after he introduced earlier than the event that he deliberate to retire after the season. The Dukes received eight straight video games to shut out the season earlier than their win over BYU, together with a six-point win over VCU within the A-10 event championship sport.
Terrence Shannon led Illinois with 30 factors after he shot 10-of-14 from the sphere. Marcus Domask added 22 factors and 7 assists, and Coleman Hawkins completed with 11 factors and 7 rebounds. They completed capturing simply higher than 60% from the sphere as a crew.
The Illini have made some of the dominant runs within the event thus far, and clearly appear to be an actual risk to counter top-seeded UConn on the opposite facet of the East area. They simply dealt with No. 14 Morehead State 85-69 of their opening spherical sport, which adopted a straightforward run to the Large Ten event championship final week.
Illinois will now tackle No. 2 Iowa State within the Candy 16 in Boston subsequent weekend. The Cyclones, after flying previous South Dakota State within the opening spherical, rallied to beat No. 7 Washington State on Saturday evening to achieve their second Candy 16 within the final three seasons.
Whereas the Iowa State matchup can be a a lot totally different battle than their first two outings, the Illini appear to have all of it collectively on the good time.