Illinois Fighting Illini (6-1) at Northwestern Wildcats (6-3, 0-1 Big Ten)
Evanston, Illinois; Friday, 9 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: No. 19 Illinois visits Northwestern after Kasparas Jakucionis scored 23 points in Illinois’ 90-77 victory against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Wildcats have gone 5-0 at home. Northwestern ranks eighth in the Big Ten with 9.4 offensive rebounds per game led by Nick Martinelli averaging 2.6.
The Fighting Illini play their first true road game after going 6-1 with a 1-1 record in neutral-site games to start the season. Illinois leads college basketball with 44.0 rebounds per game led by Tomislav Ivisic averaging 8.9.
Northwestern makes 44.9% of its shots from the field this season, which is 8.7 percentage points higher than Illinois has allowed to its opponents (36.2%). Illinois has shot at a 45.8% clip from the field this season, 2.9 percentage points higher than the 42.9% shooting opponents of Northwestern have averaged.
The Wildcats and Fighting Illini match up Friday for the first time in Big Ten play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Martinelli is scoring 20.1 points per game with 6.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists for the Wildcats.
Ben Humrichous averages 2.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Fighting Illini, scoring 10.1 points while shooting 42.9% from beyond the arc.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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