Illinois takes down Arkansas Razorbacks in basketball game at KC’s T-Mobile Center
Tomislav Ivisic hit six 3-pointers and finished with 21 points as the Illinois Fighting Illini knocked off the No. 19 Arkansas Razorbacks 90-77 in a Thursday afternoon men’s college basketball game at T-Mobile Center.
The Fighting Illini appeared to be more ready — or hungry? — from the opening tipoff of this game in downtown Kansas City, billed appropriately as the CBS Sports Thanksgiving Classic.
Ivisic, a 7-foot-1 sophomore center whose twin brother plays for Arkansas (5-2), grabbed a team-leading 10 rebounds for Illinois. Teammate Kasparas Jakucionis led the Illini in scoring with 23 points, and Kylan Boswell added 18.
Arkansas’ Adou Thiero led all scorers with 26 points.
Unranked Illinois raced to an 11-0 lead. Arkansas’ first basket, four minutes into the game, was 7-foot-2 big man Zvonimir Ivisic’s lob-dunk jam on a sweet setup by D.J. Wagner.
The Illini didn’t let up much from there. Senior forward Ben Humrichous’ 3-pointer made it 21-6 Illinois at the 12:36 mark.
Arkansas, meanwhile, experienced some epic struggles beyond the 3-point arc. The Razorbacks started the day 0 for 7 from long distance while Illinois (6-1) hit nine 3-pointers in the opening half and finished 15 of 31. The Razorbacks finished 5 of 17.
That disparity helped explain Illinois’ 49-34 lead at halftime.
Arkansas tried mightily to dissolve that margin — it was a nine-point difference at the 10:57 mark of the second half — but Humrichous stroked his third trey of the day and the Illini kept the Hogs at bay.
Thursday’s contest in KC featured a couple of fun subplots — among them, the meeting in Kansas City of coaching heavyweights John Calipari of Arkansas and Brad Underwood of Illinois.
Calipari, a former longtime fixture at Kentucky, is in his first year with the Razorbacks; Underwood, meanwhile, is a former K-State Wildcats assistant coach (for Bob Huggins and Frank Martin, 2006-12) and native of McPherson, Kansas.
Also interesting Thursday, of course, was the aforementioned battle of Ivisic big men. Arkansas’ Zvonimir, who hit the big lob-slam early, finished with 13 points on 5 of 6 shooting (3 of 4 from 3-point range). He added six rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
The tall and talented siblings hail from Croatia. Per a recent article posted at SI.com, the two “began their basketball careers in the Adriatic League playing for SC Derby” before embarking on separate paths in American college hoops.
Before Thursday, Arkansas and Illinois had last played one another in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks won that game 73-63.
Illinois now leads the all-time series between the schools 6-1.
This story was originally published November 28, 2024 at 5:38 PM.