Kasparas Jakucionis saw his left forearm act up in the aftermath of his team’s recent trip to the Pacific Northwest.
While No. 13 Illinois is unsure of its leading scorer’s status for Saturday afternoon’s visit from Southern California in Champaign, Ill., the Fighting Illini are confident in their depth if Jakucionis sits out.
Illinois (12-3, 4-1 Big Ten) is averaging 87.9 points this season and 95.6 during its five-game winning streak, which started with an 80-77 victory over Missouri on Dec. 22.
A different player has been Illinois’ leading scorer in the past four games, including in Wednesday’s 91-52 rout of visiting Penn State, when Jakucionis sat out after scoring 18 in Sunday’s 81-77 win at Washington.
“It’s something that’s limited him in the two days prior coming back from the Washington trip,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “We’ll see. If we’ve got him, we’ve got him. If we don’t, we don’t. You know how I am — next man up.”
Ben Humrichous, who averages 9 points a game, scored 21 on Wednesday for Illinois. He also scored 18 in a 109-77 win at then-No. 9 Oregon on Jan. 2 and had 19 points by halftime while contributing to a defense that held Penn State to 30.8 percent shooting from the field.
“This team really prides itself on our defensive abilities, and you saw tonight, when we really guard, we have the ability to get out in transition, and our offense really thrives on our defensive abilities,” Humrichous said. “We’ve known this team has a really, really high ceiling.”
Tre White also is emerging as a threat by averaging 19 points in his past three games after scoring 20 Wednesday. White is shooting 56.3 percent from the floor after shooting 45.6 percent with Louisville last season and has been in double figures in six of his past seven games while shooting 61.5 percent (32 of 52).
Already with plenty of depth, the Illini also are intrigued about Morez Johnson Jr. One of the top in-state recruits, he collected 20 and 11 rebounds on Wednesday for his second career double-double while contributing 20 minutes.
Will Riley, who led the team in scoring three times in the first five contests, started for Jakucionis and likely will do so again if needed.
Southern California (9-6, 1-3) enters with five losses in its past nine games and has scored more than 74 points on one occasion in its four conference games. The Trojans also are coming off a pair of subpar shooting performances in double-digit losses to Michigan and Indiana.
USC saw its Big Ten struggles continue with Wednesday’s 82-69 loss at Indiana. The Trojans continued to show inconsistency behind the 3-point line by making just 6 of 26 attempts.
The Trojans were outscored 44-31 in the second half after getting outscored by seven in the final 20 minutes against the Wolverines.
“We want to win games, obviously, but I think anyone that watches us can say we compete,” Southern California coach Eric Musselman said. “We go through some offensive dry spells that hurt us.”
Wesley Yates III is starting to emerge as an option for Musselman, who saw the Washington transfer lead the team with 18 points and reach double figures for the third straight time.
Desmond Claude added 15 points, and the Trojans’ top scorer — who averages 14.9 points a game — has been in double figures in eight straight games.
–Field Level Media
