IOWA CITY, Iowa — Keaton Wagler scored 19 points, Andrej Stojaković and Kylan Boswell each had 17 and No. 16 Illinois continued to win on the road in the Big Ten, holding off No. 19 Iowa 75-69 on Sunday.
The Illini (13-3, 4-1) won their fifth consecutive game and stayed tied for third in the conference. Three of Illinois’ Big Ten wins have come on the road; the Illini also won at Ohio State and Penn State.
Illinois led 58-41 with 11:25 to play when the Hawkeyes (12-4, 2-3) began to rally. They got within four points four times in the last two minutes, including at 71-67 with 55 seconds left with a chance to cut the lead further, but Bennett Stirtz missed a layup.
Iowa made most of its run without Stirtz, its leading scorer at 18 points per game. Stirtz picked up his fourth foul with 11:36 to go and went to the bench for seven minutes. During that stretch the Hawkeyes outscored the Illini 18-10.
Tavion Banks led Iowa with 16 points. Tate Sage scored 13, Stirtz had 12 and Cooper Koch added 10.
Illinois controlled all of the first half. The Illini led 8-0 after three minutes, getting open shots while Iowa was struggling at the other end. The Hawkeyes had four missed shots and a turnover on their opening five possessions.
Illinois’ biggest lead of the first half was 29-11 with 7:34 to play before Iowa started to cut into the margin. The Hawkeyes hit three consecutive 3-pointers late in the half but couldn’t get the deficit to single digits at halftime, missing their last five shots.
Up next
- Illinois: At Northwestern on Wednesday.
- Iowa: At No. 5 Purdue on Wednesday.
