CHAMPAIGN -- The Illineks suffered a 51-48 conference loss to crosstown rival Judah Christian in a tightly contested road game Friday.

This was their first conference loss and drops them to 3-1 in the East Central Illinois Conference. The overall varsity mark is now 11-5.

The scoring was low early on, with Judah taking a 8-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. Uni went on a run to take a 13-12 lead during the second quarter. This would be the Illineks' last lead of the game, and Judah finished the first half up 17-13.

The scoring started to pick up in the third quarter. Judah extended their lead to 27-19, which would equal their biggest lead of the game, but the Illineks battled back to end the third quarter down 35-33.

Uni tied it up at 35-35 not long into the fourth quarter, but then Judah went on a 8-0 run to take a 43-35 lead with four minutes remaining.

Uni went on a run shortly after that, and senior Tahar Bowen-Pinto's 3-point play brought the Illineks to within one point at 47-46 with 1:13 to play. Judah made a pair of free throws to make it 49-46, and Uni missed a shot at the other end before junior Patrick Wong drew a charge in the back court to get Uni the ball back with 42 seconds left.

Junior Patrick Wong races back up the court to bring the ball back to Uni(click to enlarge).

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Bowen-Pinto made a basket with 26 seconds left to make it 49-48, but then Judah slipped past the Illineks full-court press for a layup to make it 51-48. Uni missed a basket and then was forced to foul a Judah player with ten seconds left. The player missed the front end of a one-and-one and Uni got the ball back with ten seconds but was not able to capitalize, with Bowen-Pinto missing an off-balance 3-pointer as time expired.

Uni's next game is the Coaches vs. Cancer game at 7:30 Monday night against conference foe Buckley Christ Lutheran.

The JV team lost to Judah's JV team 47-15 in a game earlier Friday evening.