Ohio State hosts No. 13 Illinois following Noel’s 29-point game

By Canadian Press on December 9, 2025.

Illinois Fighting Illini (7-2) at Ohio State Buckeyes (7-1, 1-0 Big Ten)

Columbus, Ohio; Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Ohio State takes on No. 13 Illinois after Brandon Noel scored 29 points in Ohio State’s 86-82 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats.

The Buckeyes have gone 6-0 in home games. Ohio State has a 1-1 record in one-possession games.

The Fighting Illini play their first true road game after going 7-2 with a 1-2 record in neutral-site games to begin the season. Illinois has a 6-1 record in games decided by 10 points or more.

Ohio State makes 53.0% of its shots from the field this season, which is 13.1 percentage points higher than Illinois has allowed to its opponents (39.9%). Illinois averages 9.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.2 more made shots on average than the 6.5 per game Ohio State gives up.

The matchup Tuesday is the first meeting this season for the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Bruce Thornton is scoring 20.1 points per game and averaging 5.1 rebounds for the Buckeyes. John Mobley Jr. is averaging 2.4 made 3-pointers.

Kylan Boswell is scoring 17.0 points per game and averaging 4.4 rebounds for the Fighting Illini. David Mirkovic is averaging 13.8 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The Associated Press