Notre Dame picked up two wins in its first two home games of the season. It then lost two of three at the Maui Invitational. Now, it’s wondering where this season might be headed after dropping its Big Ten/ACC Challenge contest to Illinois, 82-72. All of this is happening just ahead of visiting a Boston College team that’s undefeated at home, which will be followed by hosting one of the country’s top programs in Kentucky.
The Irish (3-3) hung around for most of the first half before the Illini (5-2) went on a 10-2 run to extend their lead to 11. Though the Irish were able to cut that lead to seven by halftime, the Illini proved to be the better team during the second half. To the Irish’s credit, they brought a 15-point deficit down to five with just over three minutes left. However, that was as good as it got as the Illini made all the free throws they needed to put the game away.
All-American Kofi Cockburn lived up to his billing by leading all scorers with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field. Not far behind was Alfonso Plummer, who scored 21 and made all eight of his free throws.
South Bend native and freshman Blake Wesley continues to impress as he set a new scoring high for his young career with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting off the bench. Dane Goodwin scored 15 points, and Nate Laszewski added 13.
Oh yeah, and something happened with the football team right before this game tipped off. The Illini fans decided to let the Irish know in case they were unaware:
Illinois student body behind Irish bench start a "Brian Kelly" chant.
And "LSU" for good measure
— Tom Noie (@tnoieNDI) November 30, 2021