NCAA tourney success not foreign to Ivisic as Illini roll past Xavier
Maybe this was obvious already, but Illinois' two first-year stars, Lithuania native Kasparas Jakucionis and Croatia-born Tomislav Ivisic, did not grow up watching the NCAA Tournament.
Ivisic got an introduction last year, though, by watching his brother Zvonimir play in the tourney for Kentucky. Zvonimir scored 3 points in 13 minutes as the Wildcats were upset by Oakland.
Tomislav got a much better result in his tourney debut. He scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half as Illinois cruised to an 86-73 victory over Xavier late Friday at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
The No. 6 Illini will face No. 3 seed Kentucky on Sunday with a chance to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the second year in a row. Zvonimir Ivisic won't be there, since he already used the portal to follow coach John Calipari to Arkansas.
Tomislav Ivisic got the Illini off to a fast start, then the second half belonged to fellow freshman Will Riley, who twisted Xavier defenders in knots while scoring a team-high 22 points
The key sequence of the game happened early in the second half. Xavier got a steal and took off on the fast break with a chance to get within 1, but Riley blocked Ryan Conwell's layup attempt.
On the other end, Tre White buried a 3-pointer, then Riley hit a jumper in the lane and Jakucionis finished a 3-point play to put Illinois ahead 48-37.
Illinois also got a positive sign right away when starting guards Kylan Boswell and White combined to hit their first four shots of the game. The Illini have been very freshman-dependent at times this season, but Boswell, a junior transfer from Arizona, went 3 of 4 from long range and scored 15 points. Boswell drained a 3 just before the buzzer to give Illinois a 40-35 lead at halftime.
No. 11 seed Xavier rallied from a 13-point deficit to beat Texas in the play-in game on Wednesday, but had little chance in this one once the margin reached 17 midway through the second half.
Jakucionis added 16 points, while Dailyn Swain led the Musketeers with 27.
One oddity of this matchup was how Xavier is one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation at 39.1%, but not a high-volume 3-point team (21.4 attempts per game). The Illini, meanwhile, rank fourth in the country in 3-point attempts (30.1), but 322nd in accuracy (31.1%).
Illinois actually shot better from 3-point range, hitting 12 of 30 attempts, compared to Xavier's 9 of 23.