André Curbelo impresses with Illinois’ first NCAA championship win

Puerto Rican owner André Curbelo and the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois kicked off their participation in the NCAA Championship Tournament (March Madness) this Friday, with an easy and convincing victory. 49 on Drexler.

Curbelo played for 23 minutes and scored eight points with six assists and three rebounds, but the dominant figure was pivot Kofi Cockburn, who gave the strongest ‘blows’ of the match.

The strong Donqueo the ball to taste and gains dominating the scene in the painting, and several of these balls were served to them boricua, that entered game passed hardly little more than three minutes of action, and he immediately changed the tone.

In fact, Curbelo made a couple of spectacular plays in the second half when luck seemed to be thrown in favor of the Fighting Illini, imprinting a bit of fantasy into the Illinois game. One of them was a sensational pass between the legs of a rival, who received Cockburn to get one of his multiple sunken balls. Shortly after, the same Puerto Rican owner scored in penetration sneaking between two Drexel players, whom he evaded by changing the handball.

Cockburn was the best of Illinois and the game with 18 points, plus five rebounds, and Ayo Dosunmu had a solid game with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Two basket makers, both from the opening box, scored in double digits for Illinois, who entered March Madness as the first seed in their Midwest region, and as champions of their Big Ten conference.

Illinois advanced to the second round with its win, and will face in the second round the winner of the game between Loyola (8) and Georgia Tech (9), who are also playing this Friday.

Curbelo, 19, who had just scored 16 points as Cockburn and Dosunmu in this Big Ten final game, came in when the first four minutes had not yet been played and Fighting Illini lost 5- 2.

The rookie owner, who was awarded the “Best Sixth Man” of his conference, made a failed first attempt in the basket when his team was still down by three points, but soon after made two almost consecutive assists. , both feeding his companion Frazier. The second of these assists was after Curbelo himself caught a defensive rebound, and after lowering the ball he gave it to Frazier, who scored a triple that gave Illinois the first advantage, 7- 5.

A couple of plays later the boricua scored on layup after Drexel went to the front 8-7, and Illinois never gave up the pointer again. It was seven points in which Curbelo was involved in the blink of an eye to flip the marker.

The rally in favor of Illinois since entering Curbelo was 15-3 before Drexel scored a Zach Walton triple remaining 10:03 of the first half, which put the score at 17-11. Illinois won the first half 39-21 and the second 39-28, for the final balance via track pull.

Puerto Rican player Trent Frazier, with 11 points, and Adam Miller at 10, were the other two double-digit basketers for Illinois. Jacob Grandison scored eight as did Curbelo.