No. 20 Illinois aims to extend Penn State’s Big Ten woes

No. 20 Illinois looks to post its fifth win in the past six games when it takes on Penn State in Big Ten play on Saturday night in Philadelphia.

The contest is being played at The Palestra, the famed basketball facility that opened in 1927.

The Fighting Illini (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten) opened the recent stretch with an upset of No. 13 Tennessee in Nashville before splitting Big Ten games against Ohio State and Nebraska. Illinois has won its past two games against Missouri (43) and Southern (35) by a combined 78 points.

Illini coach Brad Underwood said the loss to the Cornhuskers woke up his club.

"We had hard intense practices with a lot of accountability, and those always help," Underwood told reporters.

That was on display with the 91-48 trouncing of Missouri in St. Louis on Dec. 22 and again with a 90-55 home win over Southern on Monday.

Jake Davis matched his career best of five 3-pointers while scoring a season-high 15 points against Southern. Davis previously made five treys two seasons ago when he played at Mercer.

"For me, it's the mentality of just come in and do my job every day, don't ask for anything, and keep doing what I'm supposed to do," Davis said afterward. "What's going to happen is going to happen."

Keaton Wagler added 11 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds to continue his fine season. He leads Illinois in scoring (15.3 points per game), assists (3.8) and 3-pointers (27).

Andrej Stojakovic is averaging 14.8 points and Kylan Boswell is at 14.7.

The teams played once last season and the Illini rolled to a 91-52 home victory. Illinois held a 57-32 rebounding advantage.

Penn State (9-4, 0-2) had a rough start to Big Ten play when it was shellacked 113-72 by host Indiana on Dec. 9. Four days later, the Nittany Lions were at home and played then-No. 9 Michigan State tough before falling 76-72.

The skid reached three games when Penn State was pounded 80-46 by Pittsburgh at Hershey, Pa., before the Nittany Lions got back in the victory column with a 90-67 home win over North Carolina Central on Monday.

Kayden Mingo scored 19 points and Eli Rice added a career-best 18 for Penn State on Monday. The Nittany Lions made a season-best 14 3-pointers (in 32 attempts).

Rice began his career at Nebraska and played in just one game for Penn State last season before sustaining a season-ending Achilles injury.

He has rotated between starter and reserve this season and has averages of 6.6 points and 17.2 minutes. He is tied for the team lead with Dominick Stewart with 19 3-pointers.

Rice made a personal-best four treys against Southern.

"I think he's really grown as a young man, just understanding what it's all about," Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said of Rice. "I think when he was hurt last year, once he got healed, I thought he did a great job of really changing his body. He leaned out, he got stronger. I think that's really helped him, and he really cares, like he's cerebral. He takes it all in.

"What you saw the other day is just being more aggressive on both ends of the court, being more physical."

Mingo has team-best averages of 14.8 points and 4.1 rebounds. Freddie Dilione V ranks second with a 14.5 average.

The Nittany Lions are doing a stellar job of protecting the basketball. They are tied for sixth nationally in fewest turnovers at 9.2 per game.