Illinois Fighting Illini vs Purdue Boilermakers Box Score on Jan 21, 2020

Freshman center Kofi Cockburn recorded 22 points and 15 rebounds, lifting No. 21 Illinois to a 79-62 victory at Purdue on Tuesday night in West Lafayette, Ind.

Trent Frazier added 21 points for the Illini (14-5, 6-2 Big Ten), who extended their winning streak to five games. Ayo Dosunmu chipped in with 18 points as Illinois won its first game at Purdue since Dec. 30, 2008.

Nojel Eastern led Purdue with 14 points, while Trevion Williams added 12 points and Matt Haarms had 10. The Boilermakers (10-9, 3-5 Big Ten) dropped to 8-2 at home this season and had their string of 15 straight Big Ten wins at Mackey Arena snapped.

Trailing by a point at halftime, Illinois broke the game open by making 11 of its first 12 shot attempts in the second half to build a 60-45 lead on a Giorgi Bezhanishvili 3-pointer with 8:29 left.

Purdue cut the deficit to 60-51 on a steal and breakaway layup by freshman guard Isaiah Thompson with 4:38 left. However, Dosunmu answered with back-to-back baskets to put Illinois back up 64-51, and the Illini went 11 of 12 from the free-throw line down the stretch.

Illinois jumped to an early 14-7 lead on an inside basket by Coburn. But the Illini sustained a blow when starting guard Alan Griffin was ejected for a flagrant-2 foul for stepping on Purdue guard Sasha Stefanovic when he was down on the court.

The ejection sparked Purdue, as the Boilermakers rallied back to tie the score at 14 on an Eastern basket and pair of Stefanovic free throws.

Aaron Wheeler gave Purdue its first lead, 25-24, on a 3-pointer with 4:19 left in the half. Cockburn converted on a three-point play to put Illinois up 29-27 with 40.8 seconds left in the half, but Purdue's Eric Hunter Jr. answered with a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left in the first half to put the Boilermakers up 30-29 at halftime.

Frazier provided a lift for Illinois in the first half, scoring 9 points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range. Cockburn also had his way inside early with nine points and nine rebounds in the first half. Stefanovic led Purdue with seven points before the break.

--Field Level Media