Jan. 22, 2015
By Lexi Shurilla, fightingillini.com staff writer | @SusanAlexisS
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Illinois and Purdue faced off for a physical match-up on Wednesday night. The Fighting Illini beat out the Boilermakers in the slugfest and used a run at the end of the first half to build momentum throughout the second period and outlast Purdue, 66-57.
Black is the New Orange
A slow start to the first half mixed with poor shooting from the Illini was turned around by the newest addition to the starting lineup, freshman Leron Black. Black pulled down seven rebounds and had nine points in the first half, making several hustle plays that got the State Farm Center crowd on its feet.
Black was a monster underneath the basket with his long arms nabbing ball after ball around the rim. He finished with a career-high 13 rebounds (six offensive) marking the most by an Illini this season. Along with his rebounding, Black took smart shots and earned a double-double while notching 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
"Obviously Leron was great today on the glass, as was our team, but 13 rebounds in 32 minutes, some of those he just went up and snatched," Illinois head coach John Groce said. "I'm proud of him for staying the course. I think a lot of guys in his situation, where he didn't play quite as much there for a while, would have pouted and he didn't do that. He learned and got better. Now he's much improved from where he was so I'm very excited about that."
"The coaching staff and the players told me to keep pushing and keep working and that's what I did," Black said. "My momma didn't raise no quitter, so I wasn't going to quit. With the people behind me, the coaching staff and everybody, I couldn't quit.
"If I'm not playing with energy then I'm not helping the team. I feel like my best asset to my game is my energy."
As a dynamic senior-freshman duo, Nnanna Egwu has done his best to take Black under his wing and help him get comfortable in Groce's system, along with passing some of his own positive traits to his teammate.
"I do think from a motor standpoint those two guys are very, very similar," Groce said. "I think Nnanna has done a great job of leading Leron, their motor and the way they act, all the different things that Nnanna has taught, not only Leron, but other players as well. But those two have kind of a special connection because of their motor."
"We all know that Leron is one of the hardest working players on our team," Egwu said of Black. "He brings the energy and he has a knack of having other players feed off of his energy and that's a great asset to our team. His production is really big for us and not just by the numbers, but just by his energy and his motor."
Record Night for Nnanna
Senior big Nnanna Egwu had a career night against the Boilermakers. Egwu finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and tied his career-highs for both blocked shots (5) and steals (3). Egwu's fourth block of the game late in the first half, the 178th of his career, moved him past Deon Thomas and atop the Illinois career blocked shots list. Egwu would add one more rejection in the second half to bring his now record total to 179... and counting.
"It's great," Egwu said of breaking the record. "It just speaks to being able to stay healthy and play for so many games. I just appreciate all the time I've had here and it's just an honor to come here and play all these games."
"I think to do that you have to have, not only have a great knack and timing for doing it, but you have to play with great motor and you have to play really, really hard all the time," Groce said of Egwu. "I just hope people are enjoying watching him play as much as I've enjoyed coaching him."
Trailing 49-48 with 6:46 remaining, Illinois rolled off eight straight to take a 56-49 advantage and never relinquished the lead as the Illini made their final nine free throws to close out the contest over the final 4:40, 66-57.
Next Man Up
Just hours before the game it was announced that junior guard Aaron Cosby would miss the next one to two weeks after suffering an eye injury against Indiana on Sunday that required laser surgery. Cosby joins three-year starting point guard Tracy Abrams (out for season with an ACL injury) and senior guard and leading scorer Rayvonte Rice (out with a broken hand) on the Illini injured list. With another adjustment needing to be made to the starting lineup, Black got his first start coming off of a strong game against the Hoosiers.
Continuing to promote the "next man up" mentality, Black & Co. had their hands full with two of Purdue's big guys - A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas - who both measure out at 7-feet or taller. Of one of four teams in the country with two seven-footers, the Illini had to put together a solid team effort to contain the two towers.
"It was fun actually because I like to go against players that are bigger than me," Black said. "I feel like it's a challenge and I like challenges. We had to work together as a team to help stop them and rebound over them. I wouldn't have gotten half the rebounds I had if Nnanna and Malcolm [Hill] hadn't been boxing out."
Hill delivered a solid performance with a game-high 18 points, six rebounds and four assists. After being the leading scorer for the previous two games, Kendrick Nunn nabbed a career-high seven rebounds and equaled his career high with five free throws while finishing with 14 points.
Toughness has been a standard since Coach Groce arrived in Champaign three years ago, and the Illini have showed just that this season, continuing to step up and stick together as conference play continues. Groce is hopeful though that he will have two of his players (Cosby and Rayvonte Rice) out of the student assistant role and back in uniform in the near future. In the meantime, the team has shown what depth it has in its group of leaders.
"I'm just trying to control what we can control," Groce said. "It's a little unprecedented. I think cards are given to you to play. I have a little bit of a different belief with that. I don't think God would give us anything we can't handle, so we've been dealt those cards for a reason and we've got to do the best job we can everyday of playing them the very best that we can."
"We've got the players to do what we have to do," Egwu said. "We understand when one player is down, the next man steps up and this is the standard we've set around here and it's the standard we have to continue to meet."
