Highly touted freshman forward Will Riley scored 31 points off the bench in his college debut and sophomore guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added a career-high 21 points as Illinois earned a 112-67 season-opening victory over Eastern Illinois on Monday night in Champaign.

Will Riley scored 26 of his 31 points in the second half to set an Illinois scoring record in a freshman debut and the Illini eased by Eastern Illinois 112-67 on Monday night.

Illinois freshman Will Riley was one of 20 college basketball players to be named to the 2024-25 preseason watch list for the Karl Malone Award, which annually honors the best power forward in the country. Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Preseason Top 20 Watch List @willriley_7 #Illini | #EveryDayGuys | #MaloneAward pic.twitter.com/0TKkMczLho

Highly touted freshman forward Will Riley scored 31 points off the bench in his college debut and sophomore guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added a career-high 21 points as Illinois earned a 112-67 season-opening victory over Eastern Illinois on Monday night in ...

Is it hyperbole to say Riley might have put together one of the best halves of Illinois basketball ever? Only a little. The Illini freshman was nigh on unstoppable in the final 20

Will Riley scored 26 of his 31 points in the second half to set an Illinois scoring record in a freshman debut and the Illini eased by Eastern Illinois 112-67 on Monday night. Riley scored 15 of Illinois' 17 points late in the second half,

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Illinois basketball is off to a 1-0 start to the 2024-25 campaign after nearly doubling the EIU Panthers. Ben Humrichous, Kylan Boswell, Tomislav Ivisic, Tre White and Kasparas Jakucionis made up the starting five following the announcement that Ty Rodgers would sit out and redshirt this season.