The NCAA "March Madness" men's basketball tournament turned out very differently for the two Illinois teams playing March 18 in their first-round games in Pittsburgh.
While the school's 102-year-old chaplain Sister Jean watched, the Loyola Chicago Ramblers fell to the Ohio State University Buckeyes 54-41 while the University of Illinois Fighting Illini barely edged the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga 54-53but only after one of the Mocs' wide-open shots failed to connect.
E.J. Liddell scored 16 points, Big Ten Freshman of the Year Malaki Branham added 14 and Ohio State shut down the 10th-seeded Ramblers from the start, ESPN reported. Braden Norris led the Ramblers with 14 points but star Lucas Williamsonthe winningest player in program historyfinished with only four points and committed three turnovers.
Illinois, the Big Ten Conference co-champions, will play fifth-seeded Houston on Sunday, March 20, after narrowly avoiding becoming the seventh team to fall to a double-digit seed.
The Bulls' most recent game continued to show the gap between them and the very elite NBA teams.
At Phoenix on March 18, the Suns (57-14) hammered the Chicago Bulls (41-29) 129-102.
Even without star Chris Paul, the Suns almost effortlessly improved to 10-4 without the points guard, SB Nation noted.
Phoenix only led by three points (30-27) after one quarter, but gradually pulled away. DeMar DeRozan led the Bulls with 19 points while Devin Booker had 28 for the Suns.
Chicago will next host the Toronto Raptors on Monday, March 21, at the United Center; and will visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, March 22.