No. 16 Illinois builds big early lead, then holds off No. 19 Iowa, 75-69
Keaton Wagler scored 19 points, Andrej Stojakovic and Kylan Boswell each had 17 and No. 16 Illinois continued to win on the road in the Big Ten Conference, holding off No. 19 Iowa 75-69
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Keaton Wagler scored 19 points, Andrej Stojakovic and Kylan Boswell each had 17 and No. 16 Illinois continued to win on the road in the Big Ten Conference, 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 place in the conference. Three of Illinois’ wins in conference play 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 to within four points four times in the last two minutes of the game, including at 71-67 with 55 seconds left with a chance to cut the lead further, but Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz missed a layup.
Iowa made most of its run without Stirtz, its leading scorer this season 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 the first three minutes, getting open shots while Iowa was struggling at the other end of the court. The Hawkeyes had four missed shots and a turnover on their opening five possessions.
Recommended for you
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 within single digits at halftime, missing their last five shots.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.