Andrej Stojakovic scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the second half as No. 8 Illinois rolled to a 98-58 victory over Long Island on Saturday afternoon in Champaign, Ill.Keaton Wagler contributed 19 points, David Mirkovic notched 12 and Kylan Boswell added 11 as the Illini (5-1) shot 63.1% from the field. Illinois piled up 68 points in the paint against the much-smaller Sharks.A.J. Neal scored 15 points off the bench for LIU (3-3), the unanimous favorite to win the Northeast Conference. Malachi Davis added 12 for the Sharks, who hit just 5 of 16 layups as Illinois blocked 11 shots.Long Island carved out an 8-7 lead thanks to a transition layup and a driving layup by Davis, but Illinois soon transformed that deficit into a blowout with a 19-2 spree over 5:32.Boswell cashed two free throws before Tomislav Ivisic grabbed two offensive rebounds and turned one into a putback for himself and the other into an open Boswell 3-pointer from the corner.Zvonimir Ivisic entered the game for his twin brother and hammered home back-to-back dunks off feeds by Wagler, then Mihailo Petrovic drove for a layup and Mirkovic forced his way down the lane for a tough 5-footer that made it 22-10 with 11:30 left in the half.
