Senior Coleman Hawkins scored a career-high 30 points as No. 12 Illinois rebounded from a 7-point second-half deficit to earn a 95-85 victory over Iowa Saturday afternoon in Champaign, Ill., that marked Illinois' 1,000th Big Ten win.
Terrence Shannon Jr. and Justin Harmon contributed 12 points apiece for the Illini (20-7, 11-5) while lightly used freshman guard Niccolo Moretti came off the bench in the second half to post a career-high 9 points in 17 minutes.
Sophomore guard Josh Dix posted 20 points to pace Iowa (16-12, 8-9), which sought its third straight Quad 1 win after knocking off Wisconsin and Michigan State. Tony Perkins posted 18 points while Ben Krikke notched 15 points and Payton Sandfort added 12.
Both teams started out hot and reached the 10-point mark in less than three minutes. All five Hawkeyes scored in that stretch while Hawkins delivered 10 of Illinois' first 15 points with a mix of 3-pointers and slashes to the basket.
Illinois seized a 30-25 lead on a Quincy Guerrier 3-pointer that forced an Iowa timeout with 8:10 left, then the Hawkeyes went on an 11-2 blitz that started with a Perkins layup and ended with a Ladji Dembele 3-pointer that bounced home to give Iowa a 36-32 advantage with 4:59 left.
The teams traded the lead 10 times in the first half while combining to shoot 55 percent from the field. Illinois took a 44-43 edge into the break despite Patrick McCaffery's full-court inbounds pass with one second left that found Sandfort for an unchallenged 3-footer at the buzzer.
After Illinois opened the second half with four missed 3-pointers and allowed multiple offensive rebounds, head coach Brad Underwood removed all of his starters at the 18:06 mark. Underwood kept the subs on the floor for three minutes, 52 seconds -- during which time both teams scored 8 points and Iowa's lead stayed at 2.
Iowa rebuilt a 7-point lead, but the Illini regained a 67-66 edge on a pair of Moretti 3-pointers -- the first two 3-point attempts of the redshirt freshman point guard's career.
Iowa forged the game's 11th and final tie on Krikke's putback with 5:53 to play, but a Marcus Domask 3-pointer triggered a 12-2 Illinois run capped by 5 straight points from Hawkins that made it 87-77 with 2:25 to play.
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