Ivisic, Illinois outlast Oakland – Yahoo Sports

Nov. 13—CHAMPAIGN — Nothing Oakland did Wednesday night at State Farm Center came as a surprise to Brad Underwood.

The Golden Grizzlies have a formula for trying to win a buy game on the road. Especially when the talent disparity trends considerably toward the home team. Muck it up. Milk the clock (to the point of taking a 10-second violation, no less). Push that talented team off its preferred style.

All of the things Oakland did to Illinois in front of a State Farm Center crowd of 15,299 that had gotten used to seeing the Illini bomb from three-point range in a pair of blowouts against Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville.

That wasn’t Wednesday night. Illinois shot 28 percent from three-point range against an Oakland team that played significantly more zone defense than the first two opponents. The Illini also turned it over 18 times. And still beat the Golden Grizzlies 66-54.

“It magnifies every trip,” Underwood said about Oakland’s intent to limit possessions. “Over time, you feel a little bit of that angst and anxiety sets in and you turn it over and that puts pressure on your defense. … The first time seeing that, it was pretty solid. I think we showed we’ve got a guy in (Tomislav Ivisic) who can handle it.”

Ivisic said preparation for Wednesday’s game was different because of the different tactics that had to be employed compared to the first two games of the season.

“They play long offenses and run sets for 20-25 seconds,” Ivisic said. “We had to be high focus and prepared for that. At the end, we were.”

Ivisic led Illinois (3-0) with 20 points on 9 of 14 shooting. The 7-foot-1 sophomore had five more shots than his closest teammate because the offense ran through him in the paint.

“We were preparing for their zone the whole week,” Ivisic said. “The coach was asking for me to be in the middle spot. That I would have a lot of space there to help my teammates, assist them, or have open shots.”

The Illini needed Ivisic to produce at that level considering they shot 28…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ivisic-illinois-outlast-oakland-045900661.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-11-14 04:59:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.