PHILADELPHIA — Four Illinois players tallied double scoring figures to help the Illini topple Penn State 73-65 in a Big Ten contest at The Palestra on Saturday night.
The historic venue — which opened in 1927 and has hosted occasional Penn State games since 2017 — saw Kylan Boswell score 18 points, Keaton Wagler tally 16 points, David Mirkovic contribute 13 points and Andrej Stojakovic chip in 12 points toward the winning cause.
Wagler was in foul trouble for most of the game and finished with four fouls, as did Mirkovic and Tomislav Ivisic.
“Keaton plays half the game, plays 20 minutes, and it’s not something that’s ideal but the one thing we talk about every single day is how we win the ball doesn’t go in,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said.
“How do we win when things are hard? Kylan Boswell was fantastic tonight, guarding (Penn State’s) player most of the night.”
Illinois jumped ahead to a 40-26 halftime edge and didn’t look back during the final 20 minutes of play, when Penn State only whittled the lead to single digits three times.
When Penn State forward Tibor Mirtič cut Illinois’ lead to 57-49 with 7:27 to play, the Illini responded with a 7-0 run that was punctuated by a three-pointer from Boswell and a pair of free throws from Wagler.
Kayden Mingo — who led the Nittany Lions with 16 points — dropped a three and scored a last-second layup to cut Illinois’ margin of victory to eight points.
“You take a win any way you can get it,” Underwood said. “You just keep fighting and grinding and nothing is easy.”
Illinois (11-3) is now 2-1 in Big Ten play, with a tilt against Rutgers slated for 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 8 at State Farm Center.
“We’ve got a few days and we’ll have a hungry Rutgers team coming in and they’re extremely well-coached,” Underwood said. “We just have to continue to worry about us, continue to get better. This team’s got great depth.”