Ohio State led by 11 early in the second half, but Illinois repeatedly barged to the basket, sped up the Buckeyes’ guards and used a 15-0 run to gain control, and the game.
Illinois made a self-preservation decision at halftime Sunday afternoon that everyone in the Midwest makes in early February.
Come in from the cold.
The No. 18 Fighting Illini became the Driving Illini, eschewing their frigid 3-point shooting for an inside game that put the heat on Ohio State’s defense. Without the physical in-the-paint presence of the injured Sean Stewart, the Buckeyes were far too welcoming.
And the Illini didn’t just save the date. They immediately RSVP’d the invitation.

Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Illinois outscored the Buckeyes 34-10 in the paint in the second half, erased an 11-point deficit and dominated the final minutes for an 87-79 victory at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois.
After making only 3 of 15 3-point attempts in the first half, Illinois (15-7, 7-5) wisely shot only five from that range in the second half and made one. Instead, freshman Will Riley scored 20 of his 24 points and led the charge to the rim against the defenseless Buckeyes (13-9, 5-6).
“We talked about guarding the three-point line, but certainly not void of protecting the rim,” Ohio State coach Jake Diebler said. “And we didn’t do a good enough job protecting the paint in the second half.”
Through 25 minutes the Buckeyes appeared headed for a fourth straight victory and a third straight road victory. But those kinds of streaks don’t extend easily in the Big Ten even when the opponent has lost three of its past four games.
And not even when Devin Royal scores 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting and makes 3 of 5 3-point shots in the first half and finishes with 29 points. Or when a 42-36 halftime lead reaches 52-41 by the first media timeout of the second half.
The Buckeyes went to that huddle fresh of John Mobley Jr.’s 3-pointer off a pass from Bruce Thornton in transition. Thornton followed that by refusing a screen and pulling up for a jumper to lead 52-41. The Buckeye backcourt was at its best.

Devin Royal scored 29 points, but the Buckeyes wilted defensively at Illinois in the second half.
siBut the Illini took the momentum away and owned the rest of the afternoon. Within five minutes, the score was tied 56-56 on Riley’s 3-pointer. That 15-4 run was just the beginning.
Thornton, who scored 22 points, stopped the run with a 3-pointer. The Buckeyes maintained the lead and seemed in good shape up 68-63 on another Thornton 3-pointer with 7:43 left. But five minutes later the Illini led 78-68 at the end of a 15-0 run.
Ballgame.
“We lost a little bit out of that connection there for a segment where that’s been a real strength for us,” Diebler said of the defensive shortcomings during Illinois’ big run.
The easy answer to the second half: Illinois shot 64.3%, and Ohio State shot 30.6%.
But the cause and effect for Ohio State’s poor shooting was both a credit to Illinois’ defense for speeding up the Buckeyes to an uncomfortable pace in their half-court offense. The result was a lack of poise by the Buckeyes.
“This is certainly a great learning experience for us where we’ve got to have more poise offensively in the guts of the second half when they’re making that run,” Diebler said.
Ohio State has ridden the guard play of Thornton, Mobley Jr. and Micah Parrish during the winning streak. But that trio went cold at the wrong time in the second half.
“They turned up their defensive pressure and forced us into some shots,” Diebler said. “We had to have more poise offensively.”
Mobley Jr.’s recent success in handling point-guard responsibilities at times so Thornton can play off the ball more and hunt open shots, didn’t work during the Illini’s 15-0 run. He scored 18 points but made only 6 of 21 shots. His 4 of 8 shooting from 3-point range was good, but he made only 2 of 13 shots from inside the arc.

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“He got sped up offensively,” Diebler said. “They forced him inside the three-point line, and he struggled. And certainly, there were some looks he’s capable of making, but there were some looks that I felt like he needed to pass on and look to get something better for either himself or someone else. We all kind of fell victim to that there for a stretch. We kept talking about it, but we didn’t execute those adjustments as well as we needed to.”
Without Stewart and only the less physical Aaron Bradshaw and Ivan Njegovan to lean on, the Buckeyes were outrebounded 43-31 by the nation’s best rebounding team. Illinois freshman Morez Johnson Jr. took advantage with 15 rebounds and 14 points, all in the paint except for two free throws.
Nothing gets easier for the Buckeyes. They return home Thursday to play Maryland, a team that thumped them 83-59 in early December. Then it’s off to Nebraska.
However, if the Buckeyes can get back to and maintain a .500 record in the Big Ten (and maybe a little better), their NCAA Tournament hopes should continue to look good.
They entered Sunday’s game No. 26 in the NCAA’s NET ranking with a No. 9 strength of schedule. They have key wins over Purdue, Kentucky and Texas. They are 4-6 against Quad 1 opponents and have seven Quad 1 games left. Quad 1 is defined as teams ranked 1-30 in the NET for home games, 1-50 for neutral games and 1-75 for road games.