Thornton and the Ohio State Buckeyes visit conference foe No. 18 Illinois
Ohio State Buckeyes (13-8, 5-5 Big Ten) at Illinois Fighting Illini (14-7, 6-5 Big Ten)
Champaign, Illinois; Sunday, 1 p.m. EST
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Fighting Illini -6.5; over/under is 156
BOTTOM LINE: Ohio State plays No. 18 Illinois in Big Ten action Sunday.
The Fighting Illini are 9-3 in home games. Illinois is second in the Big Ten scoring 85.2 points while shooting 44.1% from the field.
The Buckeyes are 5-5 against Big Ten opponents. Ohio State ranks fourth in the Big Ten shooting 37.0% from 3-point range.
Illinois makes 44.1% of its shots from the field this season, which is 4.0 percentage points higher than Ohio State has allowed to its opponents (40.1%). Ohio State has shot at a 48.2% clip from the field this season, 8.5 percentage points above the 39.7% shooting opponents of Illinois have averaged.
The Fighting Illini and Buckeyes square off Sunday for the first time in Big Ten play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kasparas Jakucionis is scoring 16.0 points per game and averaging 5.8 rebounds for the Fighting Illini. Ben Humrichous is averaging 2.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
Devin Royal is averaging 13.9 points and 7.4 rebounds for the Buckeyes. Bruce Thornton is averaging 19.3 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Fighting Illini: 6-4, averaging 86.9 points, 43.4 rebounds, 15.3 assists, 4.3 steals and 4.4 blocks per game while shooting 44.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.6 points per game.
Buckeyes: 6-4, averaging 79.2 points, 31.6 rebounds, 12.3 assists, 6.4 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 46.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.4 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.