The No. 12 Illinois basketball team lost a heartbreaker against Penn State on the road on Wednesday night. Big Ten road games are always difficult, but Illinois had a seven-point lead at halftime and blew a seven-point lead in the final 90 seconds to lose to the Nittany Lions.
After the game, Brad Underwood expressed his frustration and disappointment with the performance with a series of notable quotes (h/t Bret Beherns).
“We feel like we lost the game. We did just about everything wrong in the last 2.5 minutes…Can’t give up 55% field goal percentage in the second half and win. Disappointed in that…We did everything we could possibly do to lose the game.”
The Illinois basketball team had an 11-point lead with 3 1/2 minutes remaining, so to lose a game with a lead of that size late certainly isn’t what Underwood wanted to see. In the final seconds, Coleman Hawkins committed a foul on Zach Hicks that gave him three free throws — and he made all three.
While Hicks was the hero, Nick Kern Jr.’s huge performance paved the way for Penn State to get the upset victory at home and send the fans into celebration.
It was a tough ending for the Illinois basketball team, especially after having the lead for the majority of the game. They now fall to 19-7 on the year and 10-5 in Big Ten play, just half a game ahead of Wisconsin and still two games behind Purdue for the top spot. Just five games are remaining for the Illini before the Big Ten Tournament, so Underwood’s team will try and bounce back on Saturday at home against Iowa.
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