Illinois pulls away for 20-point win over Iowa

Tomislav Ivisic scored a game-high 22 points and Illinois pulled away from Iowa early in the second half to post an 81-61 Big Ten win Tuesday in Champaign, Ill.

Ivisic hit 9 of 13 shots and dished out five assists for the Fighting Illini (18-11, 10-8), which connected on 57.1 percent of their field goal attempts in the second half and made 50.8 percent for the night.

Kylan Boswell and Will Riley each added 15 points, with Boswell doling out a game-high seven assists. Tre White contributed 14 points as Illinois bounced back from a 110-67 loss Saturday night, its most lopsided in school history, to then-No. 3 Duke.

On Tuesday, Brock Harding scored 16 points and dished out four assists for the Hawkeyes (15-13, 6-11), which fell into a three-way tie with Minnesota and Northwestern for the last spot into the conference tournament. The bottom three teams in the 18-team league will be left out of the event.

Josh Dix added 11 points for Iowa, but leading scorer Payton Sandfort struggled, hitting just 2 of 10 shots and finishing with seven points, nine below his average.

The Illini led by seven at halftime but pulled away in the first 5:34, expanding the margin to 56-38 when Kasparas Jakucionis canned a mid-range jumper in the lane. They upped the advantage to 20 on foul shots by Boswell with 11:37 remaining and increased it to 71-47 on Riley's dunk in transition off a pass by Jakucionis.

Poor shooting and ballhandling hampered the Hawkeyes. They made just 24 of 57 shots and committed 16 turnovers that Illinois cashed in for 17 points. The Illini were careful with the ball, coughing it up only five times.

Illinois got off to a fast start in the first 9 ½ minutes, establishing a 24-11 advantage on Jakucionis' layup. Iowa responded with 11 unanswered points to pull within 24-22 on Harding's layup, but the Illini carved out a 37-30 edge at the break when Boswell hit a layup with 49 seconds on the clock.

--Field Level Media