Notre Dame Men’s Basketball: Fighting Irish Fall to Illinois 82 to 72 in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s hoops team lost again Monday night, falling in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge to the Illinois Fighting Illini in Champaign by a final score of 82 to 72.

Illinois, who is now 5-2 on the season but unranked after losing to Cincinnati and Marquette over the last couple weeks, played without four players in this match-up with the Irish.

The Illini were not discouraged by the missing guys, as Kofi Cockburn (28 points, 8 rebounds) and Alfonso Plummer (21 points) led the way as Illinois shot 53% from the field and 41% from long range. Jacob Grandison (9 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) also had a nice game.

For the Irish, Blake Wesley (24 points, 3 rebounds) was the key performer, with Nate Laszewski (13 points, 4 rebounds) and Dane Goodwin (15 points, 5 rebounds) chipping in as well. Paul Atkinson Jr. had a rough game going up against Cockburn, scoring just 3 points and grabbing only 5 rebounds, and Prentiss Hubb went scoreless while shooting 0-for-5 from the field.

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The Irish shot 46% from the field and 36% from three-point range. They won the turnover battle 8 to 12, but were out-rebounded by Illinois 33 to 29.

The first half was close for much of it, before the Illini built out a low-double-digit lead with just a couple minutes to go before the intermission. However, a small run by the Irish fueled by Nate Laszewski and Blake Wesley pulled them back into it before Plummer drained a three just before the buzzer to give the Illini a 7-point advantage at the half.

In the second half, the Illini began to pull away, mostly behind the dominant play of Kofi Cockburn, who was pretty much unstoppable down low.

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By the 10-minute mark, Illinois led 63-50, with not much super positive happening for the Irish besides true freshman Blake Wesley scoring 14 straight points, carrying the team in a hostile environment and showing great promise for the future.

ND was able to come within 5 points of the Illini a couple times within the final 6 minutes, but the Irish’s comeback efforts simply weren’t enough to overcome Cockburn and the Illini, as Illinois managed to pull away down the stretch and finish the game with a 10-point victory.

The Irish fall to 3-3 on the season and will attempt to get back above .500 on Friday night, when they travel to Chestnut Hill to kick off ACC play against the Boston College Eagles at 6:00 PM ET.