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No. 15 Illini fall behind early, can’t complete comeback against No. 21 Buckeyes

Some holes you can’t dig yourself out of.

No. 21 Ohio State jumped on No. 15 Illinois early and was able to hold off a late push to beat the Illini 87-81 in Champaign on Saturday.

It has become almost expected for Illinois to fall behind early as of late, as Ohio State jumped out to a 10-2 lead. What has also become expected is Illinois to rebound from their slow start — which they did, answering with an 8-0 run.

The Illini bigs took advantage of the hight advantage they had over Ohio State, with Kofi Cockburn and Giorgi Bezshanisvilli scoring eight of the Illini’s first 12.