Miami Gives Illinois Men’s Basketball Its First Loss, 70-61
Illinois guard Rayvonte Rice (24) looks for an open teammate past Miami guard Sheldon McClellan. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Freshman Deandre Burnett scored a season-high 19 points and No. 15 Miami won a matchup of unbeaten teams Tuesday night, beating No. 24 Illinois 70-61 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
Burnett had played in only three games previously, but he became the fourth player to lead the young Hurricanes in scoring this season. The 6-foot-2 guard added eight rebounds in 24 minutes.
Miami held the Illini to 33-percent shooting, including one out of ten each for starters Aaron Cosby and Ahmad Starks.
Coach John Groce says something was missing.
"I was proud of our guys, you know, thank goodness they fought," he said. "I thought their effort was really good. Because our execution was awful. I thought our offense was out of character."
Malcolm Hill and Rayvonte Rice each shot 50-percent from the field for Illinois. Hill finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds.
"We just need to do what we need to do, play our roles" said Rice. "We just need to play Illinois basketball, we need to look at the film, and we're going to get better."
Miami, which has never previously been ranked so high so early in a season, improved to 8-0.
The Illini fell to 6-1 with their earliest loss in the past four years.