Trent Frazier scored 16 points, Ayo Dosunmu had 15 points and six assists, and No. 24 Illinois held on for a 75-71 win over visiting Northwestern on Saturday evening in Champaign, Ill.
Giorgi Bezhanishvili added 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting for Illinois (13-5, 5-2 Big Ten), which won its fourth game in a row. The Fighting Illini, who are ranked for the first time since 2014, eclipsed their win total from all of last season.
Robbie Beran scored a career-high 17 points to lead Northwestern (6-11, 1-6). Miller Kopp finished with 16 points for the Wildcats, who have lost seven of their last eight games.
A 3-pointer by Ryan Young cut Northwestern's deficit to 60-58 with 7:51 remaining. The Wildcats called timeout hoping to set the stage for a strong finish, but Illinois quickly regrouped.
The Fighting Illini scored the next seven points to increase their lead to 67-58 with 5:07 to go. Kofi Cockburn started the run with a slam dunk off a feed from Andres Feliz, and Bezhanishvili finished it with a 3-pointer.
A putback layup by Beran brought the Wildcats within 69-65 with 2:42 left. Northwestern had a chance to get within two, but Cockburn provided a defensive highlight when he blocked Beran's layup attempt on the next possession.
Feliz made a pair of free throws to push Illinois' lead to 71-65 with 1:29 to go.
The Wildcats again refused to quit, with A.J. Turner making a 3-pointer from the left corner with 44.8 seconds left, again slicing the Wildcats' deficit to three.
Dosunmu made it 73-68 after he waited for the shot clock to wind down and then calmly drained a jump shot from just inside the arc with 18.1 seconds remaining.
Kopp responded with a 3-pointer from the left corner to trim the deficit to 73-71 with 7.7 seconds left.
Dosunmu made a pair of free throws with 6.5 seconds remaining to finish the scoring.
Illinois led 38-34 at the half. Neither team led by more than four points during the first 20 minutes.
The Wildcats pulled ahead 25-21 when Beran made a pair of free throws with 8:21 remaining. That capped a 7-0 run that also included a 3-pointer by Pete Nance and a jump shot by Kopp.
The Fighting Illini closed the first half on a 17-9 run to regain the lead.
--Field Level Media
