Terrence Shannon Jr. scores 25 as No. 12 Illinois closes the regular season with a 73-61 win at Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 25 points, Quincy Guerrier had 14 points and 13 rebounds and No. 12 Illinois beat Iowa 73-61 on Sunday.

The Illini (23-8, 14-6 Big Ten) built a big early lead, then pulled away late in the second half after letting the Hawkeyes (18-13, 10-10) get within 59-53 with 6:58 left. Illinois, which finished three games behind Big Ten champion Purdue, will be the No. 2 seed in this week’s Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis.

Shannon had 18 points in the first half and finished 10 of 19 from the field, hitting three 3-pointers.

Payton Sandfort led Iowa with 23 points, 19 in the second half. Josh Dix had 13 points.

Illinois opened with a 17-2 run in the first 6 1/2 minutes as the Hawkeyes missed 13 of their first 14 shots. The Illini led by 21 before Iowa went on a 14-2 run, getting within 33-25 with 3:27 to play in the half and trailing 39-29 at halftime.

The Hawkeyes continued to cut into the Illinois lead in the second half, getting within 51-47 with 11:15 to play. But the Illini scored six points in 70 seconds to get the lead back to double digits and kept control from there.

Marcus Domask added 11 points for the Illini.

Big picture

Illinois: Coming off a 77-71 home loss to Purdue on Tuesday, the Illini dominated early, but a lull at the end of the first half and early in the second allowed the Hawkeyes to get back into the game. Illinois controlled Iowa inside with a 50-33 rebounding edge.

Iowa: The Hawkeyes, who were 5-5 in mid-December, had played themselves into NCAA Tournament consideration in recent weeks but could have used a win over a ranked opponent to close the regular season.