North Carolina A&T Aggies vs Illinois Fighting Illini Match Player Stats On Nov 25, 2020

Junior All-America candidate Ayo Dosunmu produced a career-high 28 points as No. 8 Illinois breezed to a 122-60 victory over North Carolina A&T on Wednesday afternoon in both teams' season opener.

Shooting guard Adam Miller, the Big Ten's top-ranked recruit, set the Illinois record for most points in a freshman debut as the lefty drilled 6 of 8 3-point attempts on his way to 28 points. Sophomore 7-footer Kofi Cockburn added 18 points and 10 rebounds while Illinois set the single-game team record with 17 3-pointers. Dosunmu added 10 rebounds and five assists.

Junior guard Blake Harris paced North Carolina A&T with 12 points. MEAC preseason player of the year Kameron Langley, the senior point guard who led the nation last year with 8.0 assists per game, was limited to 8 points and 4 assists in 32 minutes.

Illinois reeled off 24 points in a row to remove the suspense early. The Illini harassed the Aggies into 17 straight missed shots to build a 32-5 lead 12 minutes into the first game of the Illinois multi-team event at Champaign, Ill. Chicago State and Ohio University make up the rest of the four-team field.

Illinois shot just 31 percent on 3-pointers last season -- last in the Big Ten -- so North Carolina A&T started in a zone designed to clamp down on Cockburn and force shots from the perimeter.

The Illini foiled that strategy by hitting 11 of 17 3-pointers during the first half.

Miller set up in the corner and sank two 3-pointers in the opening four minutes to trigger the onslaught. Dosunmu drilled three, senior swingman Da'Monte Williams hit two and Holy Cross transfer Jacob Grandison (10 points, 8 rebounds) flushed his first 3-point try in an Illinois uniform before Miller added three more 3s in the final three minutes of the half.

Just in case the Aggies had any design on a second-half rally, Dosunmu reeled off 10 points in 56 seconds -- swishing a pair of high-arching 3-pointers before he added a pair of driving layups -- to give Illinois a 75-27 lead with 16:48 to go.

The Illini cracked the 100-point barrier on a Cockburn free throw with 9:24 to go but wound up five points shy of the single-game scoring record as head coach Brad Underwood substituted liberally the rest of the way.

--Field Level Media