PITTSBURGH — Watching Illinois go through its dunking drills before Friday’s game against Chattanooga in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was a treat for the early-arriving crowd at PPG Paints Arena.
Fans pulled out their phones and took videos of the high-flying Illini players, oohing and aahing with each creative slam. Illinois clearly loved to put on a show, and it was fun to watch.
But when the Illini spent the first 28 minutes with an assortment of dunks and layups, some began to wonder whether the pregame dunking display had come at the expense of their outside shooting.
Alfonso Plummer eventually got the Illini out of their funk and hit two free throws with 12 seconds left to give the Illini a wild 54-53 win.
Kofi Cockburn scored 17 points to lead Illinois, while Plummer added 15. The Illini will play the winner of the Alabama-Birmingham-Houston game on Sunday.
The Illini didn’t hit a shot from more than 5-feet until Plummer sank hit a 3-pointer with 12 minutes, 47 seconds remaining, their first 3-pointer in 10 attempts. Plummer hit another 3 on the next possession and a jumper soon after, but he was the only Illini shooter to get in a groove.
It looked like one of those typical NCAA games in which the favorite struggles in the first half and eventually settles in and comes away with the win, and that’s how it turned out.
The Mocs built an early 14-point lead, only to see the Illini cut it to four by the break. But the Illini kept clawing back, and the game was back and forth in the final minute.
Chattanooga took a 51-46 lead with 4:34 left on Grant Ledford’s 3 before Trent Frazier hit a pair of free throws a minute later, and Coleman Hawkins’ slam made it a one-point game with just more than two minutes remaining. Hawkins missed a one-and-one, but Cockburn got the rebound and hit a hook to give the Illini the lead 52-21 with 45 seconds left.
Malachi Smith’s two free throws with 32 seconds left gave Chattanooga the lead right back, but Plummer hit both his his free throws to put the Illini ahead. The Mocs had two more shots, but Hawkins blocked a Smith shot, and Smith missed another game-winning attempt at the buzzer.
The Illini started out much like Loyola had in its earlier game against Ohio State, looking as jittery as a dad loaning his new Mercedes to his teenage son. Plummer started out with an air-ball, and before you knew it, Chattanooga had a 13-point lead.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood at one point subbed for a tired Cockburn, then watched a backdoor layup by Ledford on the Mocs’ next possession. Cockburn finally scored on a dunk at the 12:45 mark, but that would be the Illini’s last basket until Omar Payne’s layup five minutes later.
By that point, the Illini had more fouls (five) than field goals (three) and trailed 20-10.
But they finally got the crowd on their feet with Andre Curbelo’s lob to Hawkins for an easy slam with 5:51 left before halftime and kept feeding Cockburn inside the rest of the half. Cockburn’s two short jumpers and another dunk helped Illinois close the gap to four at the half, trailing 33-29. Eight of their 10 field goals in the half were either layups or dunks, along with Cockburn’s two jumpers in the paint.
The lack of outside shooting from the Illini guards was a virtual rerun of their loss to Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal.
The Illini also hit only nine of their 17 free-throw attempts, another sad reminder of their issues in the Indiana game. They finished 3 of 17 from beyond the arc and made only 13 of 22 free throws.
