The No. 19 Arkansas Razorbacks (5-2, 0-0 SEC) got down early and never recovered in a 90-77 loss to the Illinois Fighting Illini (6-1, 0-0 SEC) on Thanksgiving Day at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Arkansas got off to a slow start offensively and quickly found themselves down 11-0 to the Illini, who hit nine threes in the first half and finished 15-of-31 in the game. The Razorbacks didn't connect from deep until the second half, as they missed all seven in the first half.
"I mean, we did some good stuff, but you can’t give up 16 threes and expect to win a game, you can’t," Arkansas head coach John Calipari said after the game. "You’re not going to. And I even said prior to the game, a team that’s willing to shoot 30, 35 threes, if they make 20, you’re losing. Then there may be a game they make five and they’re losing. And today, leaving corners and stuff that my teams don’t do, we did a bunch of it today."
The Hogs made several attempts to cut into the Illini lead in the second half, but every time they did, Illinois countered with a punch of its own and the Razorbacks could never recover. In the second half, the closest the game got was nine points (80-71 with 4:13 remaining).
Adou Thiero was, as he has been in most games this season, electric for the Razorbacks. He led all scorers with 26 points on 53.8% (7-of-13) shooting. He added six rebounds, an assist and a steal to his stat line and went to the free throw line 21 times in the game.
Here's some of HawgBeat's takeaways from the loss...
