No. 14 Illinois beats No. 13 Tennessee 75-62 in Music City Madness

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tomislav Ivisic and Keaton Wagler each scored 16 points and No. 14 Illinois beat No. 13 Tennessee 75-62 Saturday night in the second game of Music City Madness.

The Fighting Illini (7-2) arrived rested after an eight-day break with their last of four Top 15 opponents on a seven-game stretch. Illinois ended a five-game skid on neutral grounds against ranked opponents and also gave coach Brad Underwood his first win in three tries against Tennessee.

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Illinois is averaging 90.4 points per game this season after leading the Big Ten in scoring last season. Top scorer Kylan Boswell went to the bench in the opening minutes, grabbing his left shoulder. He came back and finished with 15 points.

David Mirkovic added 10 for the Fighting Illini.

Tennessee (7-3) has lost three straight after going 30-8 last season and reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie led Tennessee with 15 points. Freshman Nate Ament, who averaged 17.1 points per game, finished with nine.

The Vols never led by more than two and had their last lead at 49-48 on a JP Estrella dunk when Illinois went on a 15-3 spurt started by Andrej Stojakovic’s layup taking the lead back for good, and Boswell’s layup with 6:55 left put the Fighting Illini up 63-52. Illinois pushed that score up to 14 in the final minutes.

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Illinois controlled much of the first half. Ivisic scored the final 10 of the half for the Fighting Illini, but the Vols ended the half on an 11-4 run with Cade Phillips’ layup with 51 seconds remaining giving Tennessee a 34-32 halftime lead.

To be continued

Illinois: At Ohio State on Tuesday night.

Tennessee: Hosts No. 6 Louisville on Dec. 16.

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