Jake Hasan
Feb 27th, 2020

It might be time for the Northwestern Wildcats to think of a new catchphrase.

The Illini traveled to Evanston Thursday night and took care of business as expected in a 74-66 win against a Northwestern team that has notched just one conference win all season.

With the win Illinois jumps back into a tie for second place in the Big Ten standings, a position that has them in line to get a coveted double bye in the Big Ten Tournament. It also secures a winning season in the Big Ten for the Illini, the first time since 2010.

Pretty big night if you ask us.

With all that for once it wasn’t the Ayo Dosunmu show, and while the star guard was still a force (21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) the big story of the night was sophomore forward Alan Griffin. He didn’t start the game but Griffin ended it as the talk of Twitter, he had a career-high 24 points on 6-8 shooting from three (so close to being nice) to go with 7 rebounds.  Griffin continues his breakout season after only playing sporadically as a freshman, and he is one of the Illini’s most important players going forward.

Elsewhere, Kofi Cockburn continued his case to be the Big Ten Freshman of the Year by putting in 12 points and grabbing 14 rebounds of his own. This is Cockburn’s second double-double in a row and his third in the past four games.

Looking ahead Illinois has three games left before entering the Big Ten Tournament, and the next comes Sunday back in Champaign against the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana lost Thursday night against Purdue, and as a team that is fighting for their lives to get into March Madness, they will be hungry for a win in Champaign on Sunday.