MILWAUKEE — Kentucky guard Koby Brea dribbled past teammate Brandon Garrison, losing Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis in the process. Suddenly, Brea’s view of the basket at Fiserv Forum was wide open, and one of the best 3-point shooters in the country made the swished 3 that followed look easy.
No. 6 seed Illinois already was having trouble keeping up with No. 3 seed Kentucky on Sunday in the second round of the men’s NCAA Tournament, and then Brea got hot. The graduate transfer from Dayton scored 10 straight Kentucky points in the second half to help the Wildcats pull off an 84-75 victory.
Illinois cut Kentucky’s lead to six points on Kylan Boswell’s short jumper with 1 minute, 36 seconds to play but couldn’t get any closer.
Kentucky advances to play No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Midwest Region Semifinal on Friday in Indianapolis. The Vols beat No. 7 seed UCLA 67-58 on Saturday in Lexington, Ky. Tennessee fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier led all players with 20 points.
Illinois ends its season 22-13, coming up short of the Elite Eight berth of a 2024 team that was made up of almost entirely different players.
Kentucky shot 47% from the field and was led by Brea, who had 23 points, including 14 in the second half.
Boswell had 23 points and Tomislav Ivišić added 19 points for Illinois, which struggled with turnovers throughout the game. The Illini had 14 turnovers, which led to 26 Kentucky points.
After leading by five points at halftime, Kentucky went on a 10-0 run to open the second half for a 47-32 lead. Otega Oweh, who was on the bench with two fouls for a portion of the first half, had four of those points, and 7-foot center Amari Williams punctuated the run with a steal and fast break dunk.
Boswell, Ivišić and Jakucionis eventually made consecutive 3-pointers to cut the Wildcats lead to 60-51 with 11:46 to play. But Kentucky lengthened it again thanks to Brea.
Illinois and Kentucky entered the game as two of the top 10 scoring offenses in the country, both averaging more than 83 points per game. But the Illini couldn’t get much going on the offensive end for much of the first half because of turnovers.
When Kentucky guard Lamont Butler stole the basketball from Jakucionis less than two minutes into the game and fed Brea on a fast break, it was an indicator of things to come.
UK had eight steals and 14 points off turnovers in the first half. The Wildcats had three of their first four steals off Jakucionis in the first 5 1/2 minutes, and Illinois sent Jakucionis to the bench for a couple of minutes after his third turnover.
The Wildcats led by as many as 12 points in the first half when Trent Noah made a fast-break layup off another Illinois turnover.
But Illinois cut into the lead, thanks in part to Boswell’s three straight baskets inside as the Illini began to get into the paint. Illinois trailed by just three points following Jakucionis’ 3-pointer with 36 seconds to play in the half. But Noah made 2 of 3 free throws with 1.5 seconds left for a 37-32 halftime lead.
