No. 8 Illinois dominates the paint in blowout of Long Island

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.

After a media timeout, Mirkovic banged his way back into the paint for another 5-footer and then dropped a bounce pass to a cutting Petrovic for a layup to push the lead to 26-10 at the 10:20 mark.

Neal ended LIU's five-minute drought with a 10-foot floater, but it was a temporary salve. The Illini reeled off the final 16 points of the half - highlighted by a Boswell tip dunk followed by a Boswell alley-oop to Zvonimir Ivisic for a two-handed dunk on an LIU player's head - to take a 54-19 halftime lead.

Illinois tacked on the first eight points of the second half to extend its run to 24 straight. The Illini extended their lead to as much as 70-24 before the game became more free-flowing.

Tomislav Ivisic, who's recovering from a bone bruise on his knee, made his first start since the season opener on Nov. 3. He finished with nine points and four rebounds in 21 minutes.

--Field Level Media