Illinois first half against Chattanooga didn’t go quite as planned. Despite being one of the best teams in the B1G during the regular season, the Fighting Illini have their hands full with the Mocs in the opening round.

No. 13 seed Chattanooga owns a 33-29 lead on No. 4 seed Illinois through the first 20 minutes of action. It was actually much uglier, with the Mocs leading by as many as 13 points at 20-7 through the first 11 minutes.

Brad Underwood’s team was able to clean up the missed shots and turnovers later in the half, closing the gap to just 4 points. Still, the poor performance puts the team in jeopardy of another short stay in the NCAA Tournament.

Chattanooga was led by Malachi Smith, who scored 8 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in the first half. Darius Banks added 6 and Josh Ayeni added 5 off the bench.

Kofi Cockburn had a strong opening half with 13 points and 7 boards. Coleman Hawkins scored 6 and Andre Curbelo came off the bench to add 5 points and dish out 4 assists.

The Illini were defeated in the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament. They’re going to need a much better second-half performance to avoid an upset and early exit this year.