Up against Division I University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—a program with 17 Big Ten championships—the Washington University men’s basketball team led for most of the first half, fell behind by as much as 29 and finally went on a 18-1 run to close the gap. It was enough to make the sparse exhibition game crowd shift in their seats but not enough to beat a team that occasionally sends players to the NBA. The Bears fell to the Illini 82-75 under the bright lights and loud sounds of the State Farm Center Sunday afternoon.

The Bears made the trip to Urbana-Champaign with just two weeks of practice under their belt and played a team that plays their home games in a 15,000-seat area complete with video board playing hype tape and a marching band with dance moves—the final score was always going to be secondary.

Starting center David Schmelter dribbles under the basket in the Bears’ 82-75 loss to University of Illinois.

“The whole idea is to compete for 40 minutes,” head coach Mark Edwards said. “This is what you’re teaching your kids. The clock is not what you’re competing with; the score is not what you’re competing with. You’re competing with the players on the floor. And if you play your style and do your thing and compete, then these things can get turned around.”

And turn around they did. After falling behind by 29 with 11 minutes to go in the second half, the Bears exploded back into the game with a trio of baskets from a trio of juniors. Power forward Andrew Sanders, point guard Kevin Kucera and guard Jake Knupp all connected in quick succession around the eight-minute mark to cut the gap to 20. Kucera capped off the 18-1 run with a three-pointer and a midrange jumper to pull within 12. That was enough to pull the rest Illini starters off the bench.

Even with Illinois’ first team on the court, the Bears continued to press, collecting three steals in the final three minutes. A buzzer beating tip-in from Knupp brought the final deficit to 7.

“We didn’t come here to get blown out; we came here to win,” Kucera said. “So, it’s good to see that we battled back. It’s definitely a learning experience that we’ll take into the season.”

“I give them a lot of credit,” Illinois head coach John Groce said. “They’re down 29 with 11 to go, and they kept playing, kept executing, kept screening, kept cutting.”

Kucera, Sanders and Knupp combined to score 27 of the Bears’ final 33 points. Sanders and Knupp finished with 13 and 12 points respectively, while Kucera tallied a game-high 20 to go along with seven assists. As a team, the Bears shot 46.8 percent from the field.

Jake Knupp shoots a lay-up in the Bears’ game against University of Illinois.

While the Bears excelled offensively, they struggled to play clean on the other end of the court. This wasn’t the most surprising development given that Illinois features a starting guard that is listed at 6’ 6’’, 225 pounds—an inch taller and five pounds heavier than Sanders at power forward.

“They’re big,” Edwards said with a laugh. “For us to be able to get the position on them and be able to guard them was tough. I thought that we didn’t close out very well on the perimeter, and a lot of our fouls were [because of] people out of position, reaching against very athletic kids.”

The refs tagged the Bears with 32 personal fouls, nine more than the Bears had in any single game last season. Illinois took advantage, getting into the bonus just six and eight minutes into the first and second halves, respectively, and connecting on 25-37 attempts from the free throw line compared to just 13-19 from Wash. U.

The Bears also struggled to take care of the basketball, turning the ball over a whopping 27 times, seven more than their season high last season. Illinois turned these mistakes into 29 points.

But for all the technical issues Wash. U. had over the course of the game, the they still managed to lead by as much as seven in the first half. Taking advantage of a cold opening performance from the Illini shooters, the Bears jumped out to a 24-17 lead on the back of a 15-3 run—at one point scoring on seven straight possessions.

“They screened well—they cut hard; it really challenged us in those areas,” Groce said of Wash. U.’s offense.

Aspirations of an unlikely upset were discarded quickly after that run, however, as Illinois straddled the halftime with a 48-12 run that gave them their 29-point cushion.

This was Wash. U. and Illinois’ first meeting since the 1964-1965 season, with the all-time record at 2-11 in favor of Illinois. In addition to the Big Ten treatment of a big stadium and a crisp marching band, the Bears also ate dinner Saturday night at Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman’s house. Whitman spent two years as the head of the Wash. U. athletic department before being hired by Illinois last spring.

The Bears’ season begins two weeks from now, when they travel down Big Bend Boulevard to face Webster University on Tuesday, Nov. 15.