Hawkeyes fall behind Illinois 15 seconds into game, never catch up in 81-61 loss

(This story was written in Cedar Rapids.)

The Iowa men’s basketball team was assured its first losing Big Ten season since 2017-18 with its 81-61 loss at Illinois Tuesday in Champaign, Ill.

The Hawkeyes, 15-13 overall, had a season-low point total in droppinng to 6-11 in the conference with three games remaining. Illinois is 18-11, 10-8.

It was Iowa’s fifth-straight loss in Champaign and Illinois’ eight win in the last nine meetings between the two.

The Illini outscored Iowa 19-8 in the first 5:36 of the second half to open a 56-38 lead. The Hawkeyes missed their last seven shots in that stretch. Illinois’ lead grew as large as 24 points.

Iowa had 16 turnovers after committing just seven in both of its previous two games.

“Uncharacteristic, for sure,” Iowa guard Brock Harding said on the Hawkeye Radio Network postgame show. “We just were not on the same page as a team.”

“Very uncharacteristic game for us from a turnover standpoint,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “We just made some bad choices.”

Illinois had just five turnovers, the fewest by a Hawkeyes opponent this season.

The Illini scored 15 seconds into the game and led the rest of the way. 7-foot sophomore Tomislav Ivisic, who came in averaging 12.4 points, scored 15 in the first half to help Illinois build a 37-30 halftime edge. The Croatian finished with a game-high 22 points.

Harding led Iowa with 16 points in 37 minutes. It was his second-highest total of the season. Iowa guard Drew Thelwell sat out the game with an ankle issue.

Iowa shot 42.1 percent from the field, Illinois 50.8.

Illinois led 24-11 midway through the first half, but Iowa scored the next 11 points as the Illini missed eight straight shots. However, the Hawkeyes were held to two points in the final 4:16 of the half as Illinois built its cushion back to seven points.

Illinois lost 110-67 to Duke last Saturday in New York, its most-lopsided defeat in program history.

Iowa’s next game is at Northwestern Friday at 8 p.m. The Wildcats won at Minnesota Tuesday, 75-63, to improve to 6-11 in the Big Ten. That tied them with Minnesota and Iowa for 14th-place. The 16th- through 18th-place teams won’t qualify for the conference’s postseason tournament.