Dain Dainja #42 of the Illinois Fighting Illini dunks the ball over Kalil Thomas #15 of the Morehead State Eagles during the second half in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at CHI Health Center on March 21, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska.
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OMAHA, Neb. — Illinois is on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after a 85-69 win against Morehead State.
There were two familiar themes for the No. 3-seeded Illini (27-8). The first was that they dug themselves another hole, just as they had in three straight Big Ten tournament games. This time, they trailed 9-0 out of the chute and didn’t take their first lead — on a Terrence Shannon Jr. and-one — until 5:51 remained in the first half.
Second, they leaned heavily on Shannon, who is on a scoring binge few players in Illini annals can contend with. After pouring in 102 points over three games in Indianapolis, Shannon went for 19 — before halftime — and finished with 26.
Dain Dainja was at his all-time best off the bench in the second half. Over a 5:50 stretch, he scored 15 of his season-high 21 points as the Illini went from two points down to 11 in front. The No. 14-seeded Eagles (26-9), champs of the Ohio Valley regular season and tournament, didn’t have the beef inside to counter Dainja, who introduced them to 270 pounds of Big Ten power.
And Marcus Domask had a triple-double — only the 10th in the history of the tournament — with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. File this one in the “best transfer portal signing ever” category.
The Illini were heavily favored and — though it took them awhile — flexed too much muscle, size, talent and depth for an opponent from the conference ranked 28th in RPI to deal with. This was as it’s supposed to go.
Next up for the Illini is a second-round game against 11 seed Duquesne, which upset BYU 71-67. The Dukes (25-11) finished the regular season in sixth place in the Atlantic 10 but won the league tournament and are on a nine-game winning streak.