GREENVILLE, S.C. — Illinois needed a get-right game. The fans at Bon Secours Wellness Arena probably needed a rest from the nail-biters.
The third-seeded Illini delivered both Thursday night with a good old-fashioned blowout of No. 14 seed Penn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Illinois turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 105-70 rout, wearing down the Quakers with its powerful, deep offense to advance to Saturday’s second round against No. 11 seed VCU (6:50 p.m., CBS-2).
The first three games Thursday in Greenville were riveting. No. 9 seed TCU knocked off No. 8 Ohio State 66-64, and No. 16 Siena gave top-seeded Duke a serious scare in the East Region games. VCU then topped No. 6 North Carolina in overtime in the first South Region game.
The Illinois-Penn matchup was not supposed to be one of those March Madness beauties — and it wasn’t, though Penn kept it close in the first half.
Illinois freshmen David Mirković and Keaton Wagler led the way in their first NCAA Tournament appearance. Mirković had 29 points and 17 rebounds, getting a standing ovation from the Illini fans who made the trip when coach Brad Underwood took him out with five minutes to play.
Wagler had 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Kylan Boswell added 13 points, and Tomislav Ivišić had 12 points and seven rebounds, scoring seven points early in the second half to help spark the surge.
Mirković set an Illinois NCAA Tournament rebounding record, which included 10 in the first half.
“I knew that our big advantage was offensive rebounding because they’re a worse team on the glass,” he said. “I was just going for rebounds, and it just felt like basketballs are coming to me like magnets. That’s just because I crashed. I got a lot of open looks on the rim and that’s what got me going and got our team going and that’s probably the most important part for a win.”
It was a needed performance for the Illini, who six days earlier lost their first game in the Big Ten Tournament to Wisconsin. The fifth-seeded Badgers went home on their first day of the NCAA Tournament, losing a shocker to No. 12 seed High Point.
This looked more like the Illini team that won 24 games in the regular season, sporting a dominant offense in which any number of talented players can make massive contributions.
On defense, the Illini shut down Penn forward TJ Power, who scored 44 points in the Ivy League Tournament championship game Sunday. He missed practice Wednesday with an illness but started Thursday. Power, defended by Boswell and Andrej Stojaković early, had just six first-half points on two 3-pointers, one at the halftime buzzer. That was all he scored.
Boswell said he was still mad about the Wisconsin game, in which he got into foul trouble and Badgers guard Nick Boyd scored 38 points.
“I just carried my frustration from the Wisconsin game to today,” Boswell said. “(Power) is a great player. He willed his team to this game. He had a phenomenal year. I just think it was one of those things where I’m like, ‘I’m going to win this matchup today because I can’t afford to lose this matchup.’ He’s a great player, but today I was just really dialed in.”
Illinois pulled out to a 13-point first-half lead after back-to-back Mirković baskets inside. But Penn went on a 9-0 run, including three jumpers from senior guard Michael Zanoni.
The Illini survived a stretch of 7:19 in which they made only one field goal and two free throws as Penn drew within five points. But a Mirković 3-pointer, followed by another 3 from Ben Humrichous, broke through the drought.
Zanoni finished with 20 points for Penn.
“It just boosts our confidence a lot going into the next one,” Wagler said. “We know how good this team we’re going to play on Saturday is. We just have to get back focused. We can be happy about this one, but it’s going to be a quick turn for Saturday against VCU.”
VCU stormed back from a 19-point deficit to beat North Carolina 82-78 in overtime. The Rams trailed by 14 with 7:11 to play but went on a 12-0 run to cut it to two points with 3:56 to play.
Sophomore guard Terrence Hill Jr. made the tying layup in regulation and the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime for VCU. He finished with 34 points, five rebounds and five assists.
North Carolina committed seven of its eight turnovers in the second half, including a five-second call on an inbounds play and a lost-ball turnover by Henri Veesaar, both in the final 28 seconds.
