No. 3 Illinois set a program record with 19 made 3-pointers in a dominating 120-45 win over Fairleigh Dickinson to open the season on Monday in Champaign, Ill.
It was the biggest margin of victory ever for the Fighting Illini (the previous record was 69 points over Chicago State in 1993), and just seven points off the Illinois record for most points scored in a basketball game back in 1988 against LSU.
Illinois did it all without Associated Press preseason first-team All-American David Mirkovic, who had an emergency appendectomy Saturday night, according to coach Brad Underwood. His status moving forward has not been revealed.
The Illini didn’t seem to miss Mirkovic, playing at a pace the Knights couldn’t match. All 13 players who took the court for Illinois scored.
Andrej Stojakovic was 9-for-11 from the floor and finished with 20 points in just 20 minutes. Stefan Vaaks, a Providence transfer, had five threes and also finished with 20 points in 19 minutes in his Illinois debut.
Illinois freshman guard Quentin Coleman had 13 points and 10 rebounds and flirted with a triple-double before coming out with six assists. Ethan Brown added 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and Zavier Zens also contributed 12 points for Illinois, which shot 55.4% from the floor.
If there was any sour note by Illinois, which reached the Final Four last year, it may have come at the free-throw line, where it shot 9-for-16 on the night.
Illinois scored the first 11 points of the game and was bigger, stronger and faster than the Knights of the Northeast Conference. Illinois outrebounded the Knights 65-21, scored 21 points off FDU’s 12 turnovers and held FDU to 27.9% shooting from the floor.
The biggest bright spot for FDU was the play of sophomore guard David Jevtic, who had 13 points, six rebounds and two 3-pointers while playing with a mask over a broken nose.
Landon Davis made the record-setting 19th three with 1:37 left for Illinois. It also made the score 118-45 at the time.