Illinois Fighting Illini (15-7, 7-5 Big Ten) at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (11-11, 4-7 Big Ten)
Piscataway, New Jersey; Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: No. 23 Illinois plays Rutgers after Will Riley scored 24 points in Illinois’ 87-79 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Scarlet Knights are 8-3 on their home court. Rutgers averages 10.4 turnovers per game and is 5-6 when it wins the turnover battle.
The Fighting Illini are 7-5 in conference games. Illinois averages 11.6 turnovers per game and is 6-0 when turning the ball over less than opponents.
Rutgers scores 76.0 points, 5.6 more per game than the 70.4 Illinois allows. Illinois has shot at a 44.4% clip from the field this season, 0.5 percentage points less than the 44.9% shooting opponents of Rutgers have averaged.
The matchup Wednesday is the first meeting of the season between the two teams in conference play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Ace Bailey is shooting 46.8% and averaging 20.2 points for the Scarlet Knights. Dylan Harper is averaging 7.4 points over the last 10 games.
Kasparas Jakucionis is averaging 15.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists for the Fighting Illini. Ben Humrichous is averaging 2.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Scarlet Knights: 4-6, averaging 72.6 points, 33.5 rebounds, 13.0 assists, 6.9 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 42.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.0 points per game.
Fighting Illini: 6-4, averaging 83.9 points, 42.9 rebounds, 13.7 assists, 3.9 steals and 4.1 blocks per game while shooting 43.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 76.1 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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