Leron Black had a double-double in his first start.
I feel like i should write that a second time because it can’t be real. But it is. Oh, and he did it against a team with two 7-foot players. Black was on his way to earning a spot in the lineup with his play, but Aaron Cosby joining the ranks of injured Illini after detaching his retina against Indiana likely accelerated his ascent. And he did not let his team down, scoring 15 and grabbing 11 boards.
A DOUBLE-DOUBLE IN HIS FIRST START.
Oh, and Illinois won, 66-57.
Illinois (13-7, 3-4) played well throughout, mostly, never allowing the Boilermakers to develop a significant lead. But the Illini were simply dominant at the end of each half, when it really mattered. In the final minute of the first half Illinois tore off a 7-0 run with a fast break dunk from Malcolm Hill and layup from Leron Black, then a huge three by Hill before the buzzer. It was a surge that continued to propel the Illini in the second half.
“We got a big boost the end of the first half and continued that the next 20,” head coach John Groce said.
The really impressive stuff began with six minutes to play in the second half, when Illinois started a 13-3 that carried to 1:52 left in the game. Then, starting with one minute left, Hill fed Black for a 10-foot jumper, Jaylon Tate got a steal and fed Nnanna Egwu for a huge dunk, and Tate iced the game with a pair of free throws.
Overall, Illinois had a great game as a team, despite having multiple starters wearing street clothes. But it was really Black that was special. Everyone, even Purdue coach Matt Painter, acknowledged the level Black was at in the postgame press conference.
“I think Leron Black was the best player on the floor, not even close,” he said. “Egwu and Black played harder than anyone else today, that was the difference.”
“I haven’t got a double-double yet,” Malcolm Hill commented with a laugh when asked about Black’s game.
But it wasn’t all Black. Egwu was also big against Purdue, playing night-and-day different from what he did on Sunday against Indiana. The senior scored 11, pulled down seven rebounds, and blocked five shots. The blocked shots took Egwu past Deon Thomas for the most blocks in a career at Illinois. Perhaps most impressive about Egwu’s game, though, was the fact that he picked up his fourth foul at 11:21 in the second half and then played crucial minutes in the second half without fouling out.
Black, too, had some foul trouble against Purdue, getting his fourth foul with 4:15 to play. With both of the effective bigs in foul trouble (Maverick Morgan and Austin Colbert were hopelessly lost, again), Malcolm Hill had to rise to the occasion. The sophomore did just that for Illinois, guarding 7-foot center AJ Hammons and holding him scoreless. Hill had a real fire in his eyes down the stretch, clearly wanting the ball and wanting to be the guy for Illinois in the final minutes; he scored 18 with six rebounds.
“Malcolm wasn’t going to let us lose, you could tell the way he was guarding Hammons,” Egwu said of the sophomore’s effort.
Short of guards, Kendrick Nunn was also tasked with more minutes and met the challenge, scoring 14 in 36 minutes of play. With so many stepping up and playing at a high level, Groce said his team really embodied the toughness he’s always asked for from his teams. It’s a toughness that Black inadvertently had the perfect quote for (he was actually talking about waiting his time to get playing time, but it works so much better this way so be cool):
Short of guards, Kendrick Nunn was also tasked with more minutes and met the challenge, scoring 14 in 36 minutes of play. With so many players stepping up and playing at a high level, Groce said his team really embodied the toughness he’s always asked for from his teams. It’s a toughness that Black inadvertently had the perfect quote for (he was actually talking about waiting his time to get playing time, but it works so much better this way so be cool):
“My mama, she didn’t raise no quitter, so I wasn’t gonna quit.”
If all the Illini refuse to quit playing this tough, the rest of the Big Ten better watch out.
