IL eliminated from NIT

The Illinois Fighting Illini, the lone remaining top-three seed in the tournament, were slated to go head-to-head against the fourth-seeded UFC Knights in the opener Wednesday night at the CFE Arena.

Most considered this to be a rebuilding year under first-year coach Johnny Dawkins.

“I’m looking forward to it, looking forward to all the fans coming out”, Williams said. When they started pulling away we just weren’t able to answer. “It means a lot to me to play another game here”.

The Knights earned their 23rd win of the season by winning at Illinois State Monday in Normal, Ill.

IL fans get to see at least one more game this season. He has done a great job in the last two games and the results have shown with two straight wins.

No. 4 seed UCF (23-11) will play the Boise State-Illinois victor in a quarterfinal. IL is the only top-3 seed left in the NIT, but the team is certainly playing more for personal pride than to justify their seeding; I’m fairly certain Malcolm Hill and Tracy Abrams want to keep their careers going. UCF continued to build the lead behind solid defense throughout the first half.

This game was actually pretty close for a while but what really set the Illini apart from the Broncos was turning turnovers into points.

While Illinois was the higher-seeded team, the game was played in Orlando due to a scheduling conflict at the State Farm Center.

Leading the way for Boise State was Chandler Hutchison, who scored 17 points.

“A lot of these young guys came out tonight and played really hard for us, but we just couldn’t finish out the last 10 minutes”. “We have to come in get in a good practice and stay focused”.

IL shot a miserable 30.6 percent on the night and had just one player score in double figures.

IL trailed 34-33 at halftime but blitzed Boise State with its second-half burst.

I have been wrong on IL. “We just had to withstand the storm and we know it was gonna be sold out, it was the first”. I hope there are a few more after that as well. “That environment was instrumental in how we played today”. The Golden Knights will head to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final Four. The NIT Championship game is slated for next Thursday (March 30) at MSG. With a shot to be one of the final eight teams in the NIT field with a victory, the Broncos have no problem trusting that those seniors will bounce back, or that they can use the freshmen in clutch spots.