MILWAUKEE — Illinois freshman forward Will Riley considers himself a pretty reserved person, but the emotion of the moment took over in the second half of an 86-73 NCAA Tournament victory over Xavier on Friday night.
Riley glided through the lane with one of those moves that prompts coach Brad Underwood to call him “slippery,” made a layup and drew a foul too. The momentum of the play took him past a line of sitting photographers along the Fiserv Forum court and right in front of the Illinois band, where he waved his hands up and down with excitement.
“I’m a very quiet person, but I just felt the adrenaline,” Riley said. “I just had to get the crowd into the game.”
When Riley completed the three-point play by making a free throw, it was his 10th point in less than three minutes. He scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half, making 7 of 8 shots and all three 3-point attempts after halftime.
The performance helped the No. 6 seed Illini pull away from No. 11 seed Xavier — and stave off a comeback — to advance to play No. 3 seed Kentucky. The Wildcats beat No. 14 seed Troy 76-57 in the first game of the evening session in Milwaukee.
The second-round Midwest Region matchup tips off at 4:15 p.m. Sunday (CBS-2).
Underwood joked he wondered if Riley would get hot after he missed two layups in the first half. But then he said scoring like he did is “what he does.” The Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, who is now a starter, has scored more than 20 points in three of Illinois’ last four games.
“He’s gifted,” Underwood said. “He’s very talented. He’s an elite shot-maker. I say he’s very slippery because he’s very hard to be physical with. Everybody tries, and he finds his way to his spots. To fight through the couple missed layups and nerves early and settle in, he did a nice job.”
In their last game a week earlier, a blowout Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal loss to Maryland, the Illini lamented their lack of energy. The Illini didn’t have that problem Friday night. Underwood sensed their excitement from the start.
And every big second-half shot revved up a pro-Illini crowd that had traveled from Champaign and the Chicago area.
A Kasparas Jakučionis three-point play. A Morez Johnson Jr. dunk off a Jakučionis feed. Three straight Riley baskets, capped by a 3-pointer and a waving of three fingers. A wild Riley 3-pointer from the March Madness logo to beat the shot clock.
Riley led four Illini players in double figures, along with Tomislav Ivišić (20 points), Jakučionis (16) and Kylan Boswell (15). Jakučionis also had nine rebounds and 10 assists, while Ivišić added 10 rebounds.
It was the first NCAA Tournament experience for all of those players but Boswell.
“The crowd was amazing,” Jakučionis said. “Every bucket, every defensive play, every rebound, they were cheering for us, and I just want to say thank you to them.”
Meanwhile, the Illinois defense was effective against Xavier’s stars. Musketeers 6-foot-9 forward Zach Freemantle scored just five points, and guard Ryan Conwell had 12 points. Dailyn Swain scored 27.
Xavier cut it to eight points with 4 minutes, 4 seconds remaining, but Riley hit a 3-pointer and Jakučionis had a steal and layup to make the lead more comfortable.
“I just knew whatever I was putting up was going in, honestly,” Riley said.
To start the game, the Illini missed 6 of 7 shots but then made 5 of their next 6. Ivišić was key in the run with seven straight Illinois points. He backed down Freemantle in the lane for a basket inside and then hit a 3-pointer.
In the first half, Ivišić scored 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range. He gave a tiny fist pump when he answered a Dante Maddox Jr. 3-pointer with his third 3 of the half just 15 seconds later.
“I kept doing what was asked of me to do,” Ivišić said. “Three in a row went in, and it just opened a lot of space for my teammates to drive, to play in the paint.”
Illinois attacked Xavier inside in the first half, drew eight fouls and made 10 of 10 free throws to help their halftime advantage. They made all 18 of their attempts in the game.
The Illini went nearly five minutes without a field goal near the end of the first half — getting only two Riley free throws — before Boswell hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer for a 40-35 lead. He waved three fingers as he looked toward the crowd to pump up the energy heading into halftime.
“It’s the NCAA Tournament — kids have to have fun, and they have to enjoy this moment,” Underwood said. “We’ve been talking about that since Selection Sunday. You’ve got to enjoy hearing your name called, and you don’t take this for granted.”
In the earlier night game, Kentucky junior guard Otega Oweh, a transfer from Oklahoma this season, led the Wildcats with 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.
Troy trailed by one point with 3:17 to play in the first half. But Kentucky went on a 10-0 run sparked by 3-pointers from Trent Noah and Andrew Carr and a full-court drive-and-dunk from Amari Williams with 1:59 to play. UK went into halftime up 35-27.
Kentucky led by double digits for most of the second half and by as many as 25 points.
