MILWAUKEE — One by one, Illinois players filed off the court in dismay at Fiserv Forum on Sunday night.
Freshman forward Will Riley had a towel over his head to hide his emotion. First-year center Tomislav Ivišić offered a solemn hug to a staffer before exiting. Freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis was the last to leave, walking slowly as he stared up into the crowd.
“Of course I am sad,” Jakucionis said a little while later in a quiet Illini locker room. “And I’m mad at myself that I let the team down today.”
An Illinois team that was inconsistent for stretches this season stumbled out of the gate against Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and never quite found its groove in an 84-75 loss. Fourteen turnovers — including six from Jakucionis and three each from Riley and Kylan Boswell — killed the Illini and left them feeling like they didn’t reach their full potential once again.
Kentucky advances to play No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Midwest Region Semifinal on Friday in Indianapolis.
Illinois ends its season 22-13, coming up short of the Elite Eight berth of a 2024 team that was made up of almost entirely different players. The Illini head into another offseason of uncertainty, with Jakucionis and Riley potential first-round NBA draft picks — and the transfer portal always promising or threatening to change a roster.
That reality undoubtedly increased the emotion of the end for the Illini, though Jakucionis wasn’t quite ready to look to his future when asked to.
“The only thing I am thinking about now is this game, about this family that is here in this locker room, and that’s it,” Jakucionis said.
The game was not an enjoyable one to recap.
Illinois and Kentucky entered the game as two of the top 10 scoring offenses in the country, both averaging more than 83 points per game. But the Illini couldn’t get much going on the offensive end for much of the first half because of turnovers.
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When Kentucky guard Lamont Butler stole the basketball from Jakucionis less than two minutes into the game and fed guard Koby Brea on a fast break, it was an indicator of things to come.
UK had eight steals and 14 points off turnovers in the first half and 26 points off turnovers in the game. The Wildcats had three of their first four steals off Jakucionis in the first 5 1/2 minutes, and Illinois sent Jakucionis to the bench for a couple of minutes after his third turnover.
“They were intense from the jump,” Boswell said. “They were making stuff uncomfortable for us — coach has been saying it, shocking your central nervous system. They did a good job with iso-ing the ball screen, and that rattled us in the beginning. But still, we can’t turn the ball over that much.”
Photos: No. 3 seed Kentucky defeats No. 6 seed Illinois in the men’s NCAA Tournament
After leading by five points at halftime, Kentucky went on a 10-0 run to open the second half for a 47-32 lead. Otega Oweh, who was on the bench with two fouls for a portion of the first half, had four of those points, and 7-foot center Amari Williams punctuated the run with a steal and fast break dunk.
Boswell, Ivišić and Jakucionis eventually made consecutive 3-pointers to cut the Wildcats lead to 60-51 with 11:46 to play. But Kentucky lengthened it again thanks to Brea.
There was a moment in the second half when Brea dribbled past teammate Brandon Garrison, losing Jakucionis in the process. Suddenly, Brea’s view of the basket was wide open, and one of the best 3-point shooters in the country made the swished 3 that followed look easy.
Illinois already was having trouble keeping up with Kentucky, and then Brea got hot. The graduate transfer from Dayton scored 10 straight Kentucky points. He finished with 23 points, including 14 in the second half to fuel the Wildcats, who shot 47% from the field. Otega added 15 points, and Butler had 14 points, five assists and three steals.
Boswell had 23 points and Ivišić added 19 points for Illinois. The Illini cut Kentucky’s lead to six points on Boswell’s short jumper with 1 minute, 36 seconds to play but couldn’t get any closer.
“We’re young, so we’re going to go through a lot of different things,” Riley said. “We haven’t been on this stage, so we went through the ups and downs. We just didn’t bring it out today, and it just sucked to lose.
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“I just knew I could do so much more on the floor, and I just didn’t display that. So it sucks.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood echoed Riley’s comments about youth playing into the inconsistency on the floor and lamented that he thought the Illini never quite reached their ceiling this season, in part because they were affected by illness and injuries in January and February. He said he told his players that he “had as much fun coaching this team as I have any team.”
Whether he will continue coaching many of them will be made known in the weeks to come.
“I’ll always remember this group, and those guys for their love of the game,” Underwood said. “Those two guys (Jakucionis and Riley) impacted our program at a high level. They’ll all have decisions to make. We’re better for having them, and I think they’re better for being here.”