Illinois Opens With a Record Night: 120-45 Over FDU, 19 Three-Pointers and a 75-Point Margin
No. 3 Illinois led 67-20 at halftime, made a program-record 19 threes and outrebounded Fairleigh Dickinson 65-21 — the largest margin the Illini have ever posted at the State Farm Center, and they did it without their preseason All-American.
No. 3 Illinois opened its season with a 120-45 rout of Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday night in Champaign — a 75-point margin the Associated Press reported as the largest in program history at the State Farm Center, which opened in 1963.
The numbers stacked up quickly. Illinois scored the first 11 points, ran off 24 straight late in the first half and led 67-20 at the break. The Illini made a program-record 19 three-pointers, outrebounded the Knights 65-21, scored 21 points off turnovers and held FDU to 27.9 percent shooting. The 120 points finished seven short of the program record of 127, set in 1988.
Andrej Stojakovic and Stefan Vaaks scored 20 points apiece and six Illini reached double figures. Illinois did it shorthanded: preseason All-American David Mirkovic missed the opener after an emergency appendectomy Saturday night, as coach Brad Underwood told reporters, and Lincoln Williams also sat out.
Illinois, 1-0 and a winner of 108 of its 122 season openers per the AP file, hosts Penn on Thursday night at the State Farm Center.
