Illinois Reaches Elite Eight with Win vs. Iowa State, Impresses March Madness Fans

It wasn't always pretty, but Illinois is moving on to the Elite Eight.

The Fighting Illini beat Iowa State in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night, 72-69, behind Terrance Shannon Jr.'s 29 points.

Illinois advanced despite struggling from both three (9-of-29) and the free-throw line (15-of-29), allowing Iowa State to hang around in game that saw the Cyclones get off to an incredibly slow start on the offensive end.

Awaiting Illinois is the defending champion UConn Huskies, a brutal matchup for any team, but the Fighting Illini received their flowers on social media after a hard-fought win:

Both teams will probably feel as though they didn't offer their best basketball on the evening. While Illinois struggled massively from the free-throw line, costing themselves easy points, Iowa State snuffed multiple easy looks at the rim and became careless with the ball late in the second half with the game on the line.

Not the prettiest performance from these Cyclones, though they deserve credit for fighting through their early struggles. Illinois jumped out to an early 11-2 lead, led by as many as 13 points in the first half and took a 10-point advantage into the intermission.

Iowa State continued to claw back but never completely erased the deficit, as the Fighting Illini led wire-to-wire.

UConn will present far more issues for Illinois. The Huskies have now won their last nine NCAA tournament games over the past two seasons by an average margin of 22.9 points, a remarkable stretch of dominance.

Illinois can score with the best of them. But if they don't clean up some of their execution, namely at the free-throw line, UConn won't let them hang around.