Illinois was undoubtedly dealing with some butterflies early in the first half on its first round matchup against Drexel on Friday afternoon. But those appeared to flutter away near the end of the first 20 minutes.

There was some back and forth between the two teams early in the game, but the Fighting Illini closed out the half on a 16-4 run to take a 39-21 lead into the locker room at halftime. Illinois did it with a balanced offensive attack, getting ample production from numerous players.

Trent Frazier was the Illinois’ leading scorer in the first half with 9 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Ayo Dosunmu is on his way to a double-double with 8 points and 7 rebounds and Kofi Cockburn has pitched in 8 points on 4-of-5 from the floor.

Adam Miller gave the Illini 6 points while Jacob Grnadison, Giorgi Bezhanishvili, Andre Curbelo and Da’Monte Williams each scored 2 points.

Drexel’s leading scorer was Zach Walton with 6 points.

Illinois shot 18-of-33 from the field and had 11 assists. The Illini got to the foul line just 3 times and converted on only 1 attempt from the charity stripe. But it didn’t matter, as they’re now one half away from advancing to the next round.