Illinois

Illinois Basketball Bounces Back With Pivotal Win Over Ohio State

Published

11 months ago

February 2, 2025

Illinois Basketball Bounces Back With Pivotal Win Over Ohio State

If No. 18 Illinois was going to start turning its season back around, it was almost certainly going to need a hand from its freshmen.

But with streaking Ohio State in Champaign on Sunday, Will Riley and Morez Johnson Jr. didn’t just offer a hand – they threw the Illini on their backs and galloped to what may be remembered as a pivotal 87-79 win over the Buckeyes.

Riley exploded for 20 of his 24 points in the second half, Johnson had 14 points and 15 rebounds for his third double-double of the season, and they combined to key a 40-18 run that spun around an 11-point deficit and sent the Buckeyes packing.

The Illini (15-7, 7-5 Big Ten) celebrated the healthy return of center Tomislav Ivisic (mono) by outrebounding Ohio State 43-31 and hammering the Buckeyes (13-9, 5-6) inside – especially in the second half. Illinois outscored the visitors 52-30 in the paint.

Morez working to bring the whole house down 👀 pic.twitter.com/0SMjQaOY2w
— Illinois Men’s Basketball (@IlliniMBB) February 2, 2025

Illinois’ increasingly painful three-point-shooting struggles continued Sunday (4-for-20, 20 percent), but the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight got wise and found a much easier target when shooting from point-blank range. Johnson’s beast-mode performance – including seven offensive rebounds and several putback dunks – and Ivisic’s efficiency inside (4-for-6 shooting inside the arc) helped keep the Illini afloat when it appeared for all the world that they were going under.

A stronger defensive effort in the second half – Ohio State was held to 30.6 percent shooting after the break – was another difference-maker, as Kasparas Jakucionis, Kylan Boswell, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and others did an excellent job of contesting shots. Roughly midway through the half, with the Illini still trailing by two, Buckeyes guard John Mobley Jr. curled around a pick to find daylight – until the 6-foot-6 Jakucionis came soaring in to snuff it.

But the day belonged to Riley. His three-pointer and three-point play on back-to-back possessions tied the game at 59 with 10:48, and his 6-for-6 shooting from the free-throw line over the final 2:11 helped prevent any late-game OSU heroics.

Boswell chipped in 14 points and Ivisic matched Johnson’s double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds) for the Illini, who ended the Buckeyes’ three-game win streak and gained some footing with a rocky remaining Big Ten schedule still ahead.

OSU’s Royal led the game with 29 points.

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Illinois

Over 81K deer harvested in Illinois firearm deer season

Published

12 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Over 81K deer harvested in Illinois firearm deer season

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KWQC) – Early numbers show more than 81,000 deer were harvested during Illinois’ firearm deer season this year.

Officials said preliminary totals show 91,225 deer were harvested during the seven-day season that ended on Dec. 7, according to a news release.

This is down from the 82,496 deer harvested during the firearm season last year, officials said.

Local firearm deer season totals:

Rock Island County: 728
Whiteside County: 699
Jo Davies County: 1,336
Knox County: 1,057
Henry County: 572
Mercer County: 873
Warren County: 516
Bureau County: 909

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Illinois

Bears again expand stadium search, including outside Illinois

Published

24 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Bears again expand stadium search, including outside Illinois

CHICAGO — Three days before hosting their biggest game at Soldier Field in years, the Chicago Bears are exploring moving outside the city for which they are named.

In an open letter to fans Wednesday evening, team president and CEO Kevin Warren said the Bears will explore other locations — including outside of Cook County, where the team owns a 326-acre property in Arlington Heights, Illinois — to build a domed stadium.

That includes moving the Bears out of Illinois altogether.

“In addition to Arlington Park, we need to expand our search and critically evaluate opportunities throughout the wider Chicagoland region, including Northwest Indiana,” Warren said. “This is not about leverage. We spent years trying to build a new home in Cook County. We invested significant time and resources evaluating multiple sites and rationally decided on Arlington Heights.

“Our fans deserve a world-class stadium. Our players and coaches deserve a venue that matches the championship standard they strive for every day. With that in mind, our organization must keep every credible pathway open to deliver that future.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pushed back against a potential move of the team out of the state.

“Suggesting the Bears would move to Indiana is a startling slap in the face to all the beloved and loyal fans who have been rallying around the team during this strong season,”Pritzker spokesperson Matt Hill said in a statement. “The Governor’s a Bears fan who has always wanted them to stay in Chicago. He has also said that ultimately they are a private business.”

The Bears purchased the Arlington Park property that formerly housed the Arlington International Racecourse for $197 million in 2023, shortly before Warren replaced Ted Phillips as team president and CEO. The Bears proposed building a 60,000-seat fixed-roof stadium within a $5 billion mixed-use development.

Not long after closing on the land in Arlington Heights, the team began exploring options for a new stadium site when it announced its plans to build at the Arlington Park site were “at risk” as negotiations over property taxes reached a $100 million impasse.

Shortly before the 2024 draft, the Bears shifted their focus to building their new stadium on the lakefront south of Soldier Field and announced they would invest more than $2 billion in private money into the construction and development of the stadium and surrounding areas.

Although the team has maintained that the construction of a new stadium will be privately funded, concerns over the burden placed on taxpayers to fund the infrastructure around the stadium led to an impasse. That led the Bears to explore Arlington Heights once again as an option, which Warren announced during league meetings in April. Ahead of the Bears’ home opener against theMinnesota Vikingson Sept. 8, Warren released a letter to fans, saying the team’s sights were set on building in Arlington Heights. He has said throughout the year that the goal was to break ground before the end of 2025.

However, the Bears have been in a battle with lawmakers over tax breaks and securing $855 million in public funding for costs related to building the new stadium.

“We have not asked for state taxpayer dollars to build the stadium at Arlington Park,” Warren said. “We asked only for a commitment to essential local infrastructure [roads, utilities, and site improvements], which is more than typical for projects of this size. Additionally, we sought reasonable property tax certainty to secure financing. We listened to state leadership and relied on their direction and guidance, yet our efforts have been met with no legislative partnership.”

The Bears’ current lease at Soldier Field runs through 2033. On Saturday night, the 10-4 Bears will host the Green Bay Packers in a high-stakes meeting that will heavily determine Chicago’s path to the postseason.br/]

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