Illinois men's basketball couldn't close the door against Northwestern

EVANSTON Brad Underwood rattled through a litany of reasons Illinois wound up on the wrong side of Friday night's overtime game at Northwestern how the Illini saw a 10-point lead midway through the second half turn into a 70-66 road loss after those bonus 5 minutes.

There were the missed layups.

As in too many of them, with Illinois finishing 12 of 21 around the rim.

Double-digit turnovers didn't help either.

Especially with the Wildcats committing just four of their own.

Northwestern's bench reacts as they secure an overtime win over Illinois.

And don't forget the offensive rebounding.

Or lack thereof.

Seven offensive rebounds off 42 missed shots is a far cry from what Underwood demands from his team.

A combination that was the difference in Illinois leading 46-36 with just more than 10 minutes to play in regulation and ultimately losing by four in overtime for the second straight season at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

A combination that had Illinois center Tomislav Ivisic saying Northwestern was the tougher team down the stretch.

"It surprises me and it bothers me because I think we are a better team than them," Ivisic said.

The Illini sophomore had 15 points, 12 rebounds and five assists for his fifth double-double of the season.

"At the end, it seemed like they wanted it more," Ivisic added.

"The crowd kept them going, and we kind of got lost in there.

In overtime, they executed better than us.

The team's got a lot to learn from this game.

We hope to learn from our mistakes and be better in the upcoming games." A sellout crowd of 7,039 filled Welsh-Ryan Arena on Friday night.

Illinois was well represented, but Northwestern's late-game push sparked by Nick Martinelli turning "booty ball" against Illinois gave the Wildcats faithful life.

Illinois guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, left, guards Northwestern guard Brooks Barnhizer during the second half.

While it was the first true road game of the season for they Illini, they faced a fairly hostile crowd when they played Alabama in Birmingham, Ala., last month.

The Northwestern crowd turning up the intensity wasn't the issue for a young Illinois team.

"It's our game," said Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis, who had 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

"We didn't do what we have to do.

We didn't keep with our plan.

We also didn't execute that much.

We didn't play tough.

We have to execute better, execute more." Like on the offensive glass.

Underwood wasn't thrilled with the nine missed layups.

The turnovers bugged him, too.

Neither will set a team down the path to a Big Ten road win.

But the Illinois coach was most disappointed by his team's inability to offensive rebound.

There were certainly opportunities.

Ben Humrichous and Will Riley the team's two best shooters through the first month of the season combined to go 1 of 15 from three-point range.

None of those misses came back to the Illini.

Underwood doesn't mind the misses.

He wants this team to pull the trigger from three-point range.

It's why he built the roster the way he did.

The only ask for that permanent green light is to try like hell to get as many misses back as possible.

Miss 25 three-pointers? Get them back to try again.

"For us to be efficient offensively, that has to be the case," Underwood said.

"Maybe they blocked us out.

Maybe we didn't fight.

"I've gotten soft in practice and not as demanding as I should be.

We were one of the top teams in the country last year in rebounding missed threes.

It's something we chart and something we stat.

We got away with it against Arkansas.

I think we only got 22 percent of our misses back against Arkansas.

We've got to find some guys tough enough to want to go do that." And soon.

Illinois will be back in action at 8 p.m.

Tuesday, hosting Wisconsin in the second of two early Big Ten games.

Then comes a Dec.

14 showdown with a Tennessee team that will probably be ranked No.

1 in the country when it comes to State Farm Center.

"We have to learn from this game," Jakucionis said.

"It's our first close game our first game of overtime.

We just have to learn from it, learn from the mistakes and keep focusing on Wisconsin now." Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!.

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