Gibbs-Lawhorn Scores Game-High 18 as #25 Illinois Defeats EIU in Season Opener

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – No. 25 Illinois used multiple big scoring runs to secure an 80-52 win over Eastern Illinois to open the team's 2023-24 regular-season campaign at State Farm Center on Monday night. 

A 30-6 Fighting Illini run over an 11-minute stretch between the first and second halves saw the hosts erase a five-point deficit, and they never looked back en route to a 28-point home victory.

True freshman Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn gave the Illini a spark off the bench, recording a game-high 18 points in his first appearance at the college level. Gibbs-Lawhorn also finished his Illinois debut with three rebounds, three assists, one block, and one steal while shooting 70% from the field.

Beginning his seventh season at the helm, head coach Brad Underwood used the regular-season opener to give minutes to 13 different players, 12 of whom scored at least one point.

Returners Coleman Hawkins, Ty Rodgers, and Terrence Shannon Jr. all earned a spot in the starting five, while fifth-year transfers Marcus Domask and Quincy Guerrier made their first starts with the Illini to round out Underwood's first starting lineup of the season.

Shannon scored 16 points, his 11th consecutive contest in double figures. Knocking down three 3-pointers, Shannon also tallied five rebounds and a team-high two steals.

Amani Hansberry totaled seven points and a team-high eight rebounds in his first college outing, while Dain Dainja ended his night with eight points, six boards, and one block.

Luke Goode, the first man in off the bench, hit three 3-pointers and grabbed six boards. Playing a team-high 28 minutes, Domask amassed six points, four rebounds, and three assists.

The Illini shot 50% from the field while hitting 10 3-pointers. The Orange and Blue won the rebounding margin, 50-40, and they accumulated 47 bench points and 36 points in the paint.

After falling behind early, the Illini used a 7-0 run over a three-minute stretch to cut their deficit to two. Needing a spark off the bench, Gibbs-Lawhorn provided that boost, accounting for six straight points during a 9-0 Illinois scoring run to give the Orange and Blue the lead with just over seven minutes to play in the first half.

The Illini started to generate some momentum on offense and took advantage to close the opening frame. A 14-2 run, which included seven points from Shannon and a triple from Goode, to close the period sent Illinois into the locker room with a 37-25 edge.

The home side outscored the Panthers, 23-6, over the final nine minutes of play, holding Eastern Illinois without a basket for the final three minutes and knocking down three 3-pointers over the last two minutes. The Illini recorded an assist on seven of their 15 field goals, got 18 points from their bench, and saw 11 different players register minutes in the first half. 

Illinois came out of the break with an edge, opening the second half with a 7-0 run to extend their advantage to 19 points and force an early EIU timeout. After Marcus Domask knocked down his first triple as an Illini, Gibbs-Lawhorn once again ignited a big scoring run. The true freshman scored the first seven points of a 10-0 stretch over a 100-second span, pushing the Illinois lead to 58-31 with 13 minutes to play.

Gibbs-Lawhorn notched five straight Illini points, including his second 3-pointer of the night, to push the lead to a game-high 30 points with six minutes remaining.

Hansberry scored the final six points of the night for the Orange and Blue, sending the Illini to 1-0 on the season with the comfortable home victory.

Illinois returns to State Farm Center on Friday to take on Oakland. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. on B1G+.

Highlights

Press Conference

Postgame Notes

TEAM NOTES

• The Illini have posted an all-time record of 105-14 (.882) in season openers and have won eight straight openers.
  • Have defeated EIU in back-to-back season openers.
• The Illini are 40-2 all-time (.952) when starting the season at State Farm Center. This includes a current streak of 27 straight wins when opening the year at SFC, a run that began on Dec. 1, 1993.
• Illinois assisted 15 times on 29 field goals.
• The Orange and Blue held a 50-40 rebounding advantage, including a 40-26 edge on the defensive glass.
• The Illini bench out-scored their Panther counterparts, 47-20.
• Freshmen Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Amani Hansberry, redshirt freshman Niccolo Moretti, senior Max Williams, and grad students Marcus Domask, Justin Harmon and Quincy Guerrier all made their Illini debuts tonight.

PLAYER NOTES

• Freshman Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scored a game-high 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting (2-5 3FG) to go along with three rebounds and three assists in his collegiate debut.
  • Was a +21 in 20 minutes of action.
• Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds.
  • Has scored in double figures in 11 straight contests, dating back to Jan. 31.
  • Went 3-for-7 from deep, has made at least two 3-pointers in three of his last four games.
  • Was a +27 in 26 minutes of action.
• Luke Goode scored nine points off the bench, shooting 3-for-5 from behind the arc.
• Freshman Amani Hansberry grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in his collegiate debut and added seven points, going 2-for-3 from the floor.
• Marcus Domask scored six points in his Illini debut and was a +26 in 28 minutes.

Quotes

Head coach Brad Underwood

Opening statement:

"Marty (Simmons) is going to have a good year. That team was pretty good. They do a lot of things well. I thought that early, we were really flat, we were be pretty emotionless. I thought our attention to detail, which has been really good, was not very good. We got 52% of our misses back a year ago, and they were 319th in defensive rebound percentage last year. We talked ad nauseam about offensive rebounding. We had one offensive rebound from our starters, so that will tell you where they were at. That is disappointing. I'm disappointed in that. 

"I'm extremely happy with our guys off the bench. I thought Luke Goode came in and immediately sparked us and got a couple of good looks. It is no coincidence that the week before the Kansas scrimmage, Quincy Guerrier was the best player on the court. This week, it is no coincidence that Dra was the best player on the court in practice. The correlation is very much evident in terms of their production. 

"I thought Marcus had a tough shooting night, but he was elite on the defensive side and just handling his assignments. We talked about a certain ball-screen action and going under it and catching it. He hit every single one of them. We gave up three early to the middle of the court where we had a busted assignment. Marcus was really, really solid there. 

"I thought Dain and Amani both did a really, really good job coming in. Dain established some presence in the paint. Amani finds a way, in 14 minutes, to get eight rebounds. You saw that he can step out and shoot a three. It was nice to see him play some extended minutes in a rhythm. I felt very good about Nico. He got a little sped up.

"Overall, I thought it was a first-game win coming off a big exhibition that we did not handle very well, but we found a way to win. We have a lot of things to clean up. We are going to look at film, and we will get to work on Oakland, who is very, very good."

Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn

On his mindset when providing a spark off the bench:

"I do whatever I can to help the team get the dub at the end of the game. Sometimes it's good coming off the bench because you can get a feel for the game and how people are playing, so I loved it."

On his approach heading into his first appearance at the college level: 

"I feel like it's normal for every person to have little butterflies in their stomach before a game, but I tried to settle it out. I tell myself every game that I've played against dudes at this level before, so it's not different from playing in high school or anything like that, except for the physicality."

Terrence Shannon Jr.

On Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn:

"He gave us energy. He had a great week of practice. You could tell that he was going to play well. He always has energy in practice, always goes hard. He's just one of those guys who is always energetic and can bring energy to any team that he's on."

On what changed in the first half as the Illini started to settle in:

"We were just playing with energy. We kind of came out flat. They still got offensive rebounds, but we did a better better job blocking out on the ball and limiting their offensive rebounds."