After leading by as much as 22 points in the first half Baylor holds off the #Illini 95-91. Illinois pulled to within 3 points late - but couldn’t finish. Brad Underwood greets Scott Drew warmly in the post game handshake line: “You guys are really good!”.

Don’t say Brad Underwood doesn’t want to win this game. He just slammed the scorer’s table with both hands after that foul call against Jason Jakstys.

The #Illini come back in this game has been keyed by some of the “on the line - up the line” defensive pressure we saw in Brad Underwood’s first two seasons at Illinois.

#Illini are on a 7-0 run to cut the Baylor lead to 87-81 with 3:45 to play. More importantly - Tomislav Ivisic was out on the floor with nary a limp to greet his teammates after a Baylor TO.

Hello up there Lincoln Williams. #Illini

Five freshmen lineup for Illinois!

After a flurry of missed lay-ups on both ends - two Tomislav Ivisic free throws have pulled the #Illini back to within 10 points at 69-59

#Illini with the four freshmen plus Tomi line up. Interesting. First defensive possession ends with a Lucas Morillo steal.

Ethan Brown with a five point burst to pull the #Illini back within shouting distance at 63-49. Cue @ALionEye

Outside of Quentin Coleman, there were no bright spots for the #Illini in that 1st half. Baylor absolutely overwhelmed Illinois with 63 points. When they weren’t splashing threes (11 in the first half), they were grabbing offensive rebounds (15 2nd chance pts). Yikes.

#Illini having some trouble clearing the defensive glass. Baylor has 9 second chance points already (out of 17).

Hello Quentin Coleman. Two buckets (the last one courtesy of a vicious dunk) and two rebounds already. The freshman has skill, pop, and a motor. That’ll play. #Illini

Jerome Tang is now a Baylor assistant coach.