Halftime Report

Only one more half stands between Illinois and the victory they were favored to collect coming into this evening. After one quarter their offense has really been able to impose its will, dominating FDU 48-28.

Illinois already has five blowout wins this season, but why stop there? Barring a freak comeback, they will be celebrating another huge victory in the locker room very soon.

Who's Playing

FDU Knights @ Illinois Fighting Illini

Current Records: FDU 6-7, Illinois 9-2

How To Watch

What to Know

If the oddsmakers' predictions hold true, the near future looks bright for Illinois. They will finish 2023 at home by hosting the FDU Knights at 9:00 p.m. ET on Friday at State Farm Center. Illinois will be looking to keep their four-game home win streak alive.

Illinois has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five contests by 23 points or more this season. Everything went their way against the Tigers on Friday as the Fighting Illini made off with a 97-73 victory. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 49-24.

Illinois can attribute much of their success to Quincy Guerrier, who scored 28 points along with eight rebounds, and Terrence Shannon Jr., who dropped a double-double on 30 points and 11 rebounds. Those 28 points set a new season-high mark for him. Another player making a difference was Coleman Hawkins, who scored 15 points along with seven rebounds.

Meanwhile, things couldn't have gone much worse for the Knights as they lost 92-69 to the Stags last Thursday. FDU was in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 56-26.

The Fighting Illini have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 9-2 record this season. As for the Knights, they now have a losing record at 6-7.

Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the pair are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Illinois hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 81 points per game. However, it's not like FDU struggles in that department as they've been averaging 81.5 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.

Odds

Illinois is a big 25-point favorite against FDU, according to the latest college basketball odds.

The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Fighting Illini as a 26-point favorite.


The oddsmakers are expecting fireworks from the offense and set the over/under at a high 161 points.

See college basketball picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine's advanced computer model. Get picks now.