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Illinois absolutely, positively had to stop the bleeding after losing four of six games in Big Ten play.

With a slew of challenging games left on their schedule, the Fighting Illini needed to score a road victory at Minnesota Saturday to stabilize. That’s why Tomislav Ivisic insisted on playing on a bum ankle.

He held up fine inside, scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds as Illinois rolled to a 95-74 victory over the Not-So-Golden Gophers.

“I thought the performance of the night was Tomi,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “If you could see his ankle, it looks like a really quite enlarged Cabernet grape. It is black and blue, and it is nasty. He has done nothing for two days but live in recovery. No shootaround today. Didn't know if he was going to play.”

Freshman Will Riley dazzled with 27 points, nine rebounds and seven assists on the bench.

“I think everybody sees he's an incredible player and scorer, and today we saw that he can play-make too," noted Kasparas Jakucionis, who got back on track himself with 24 points. "He's a good player overall. He can do everything on the court. He's making shots, he's making the team better, he's making us better and I'm very happy for him.

“We need him. Our team needs everybody. When he's on the heater and when he playing good, I think it's impossible to lose the game."

While the Illini are trying to reverse a negative late-season trend, Missouri is trying to stay out of one after dropping its second straight Southeastern Conference game.

After taking a good run at No. 4 Tennessee and falling just short in an 85-81 road loss Wednesday, the Tigers had a chance to bank a huge victory over No. 10 Texas A&M at Mizzou Arena Saturday.

But they after overcoming a poor start, the Tigers suffered costly lapses at both ends of the court in the final minute while losing 67-64 at home.

Elsewhere in the region, depleted SLU split its Atlantic 10 road games, SIU Edwardsville and SEMO each won twice in the Ohio Valley Conference and SIU Carbondale extended its midseason surge in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Here is how the region’s Division I teams stack up:

MISSOURI (17-6)

While the Tigers failed to upset No. 4 Tennessee, they hung tough Wednesday and boosted their metrics. Gates took the long view in the game, rotating 12 players while giving most of his reserves important minutes. (Aidan Shaw also appeared briefly to defend a last-minute inbounds pass.) With starting guard Anthony Robinson II limited to 6 minutes by a series of silly fouls, Tony Perkins took charge at the point with 16 points, five assists and five rebounds. Off the bench, Marques Warrick scored eight points in 10 minutes and freshman T.O. Barrett had four points and two assists in 7 minutes. Warrick was a central figure again Saturday, making two steals, dishing four assists -– two on transition alley-oop passes -– and scoring six points in his 20 minutes. But Warrick failed to shadow Texas A&M star Wade Taylor IV on the closing seconds and his closeout was too late to stop the winning 3-pointer. The Tigers wasted a big effort from Jacob Crews, who rallied the Tigers with a 3-point shooting spree in the first half of his 14-point performance.

ILLINOIS (16-8)

The Fighting Illini’s struggle with 3-point shooting continued Wednesday night during their 82-73 loss at Rutgers. They missed 22-of-28 shots from deep. Foul trouble limited guard Kasparas Jakucionis to 27 minutes and Morez Johnson to 22. Freshman standout Will Riley came off the bench to score 18 points and dish six assists, but he also turned the ball over four times. Rutgers outscored Illinois 28-13 at the free-throw line. Such is life on the road in the Big Ten. Illinois recovered nicely while blasting Minnesota on the road with 9-for-16 shooting from beyond the arc. For now, anyway, order has been restored. After hosting UCLA Tuesday, the Illini have Michigan State Wisconsin and (ahem) Duke next up on their schedule.

SLU (14-10)

The scrappy Billikens claimed another Atlantic 10 road ‘W’ in improbable fashion, rallying for a 73-71 victory Tuesday at UMass. They trailed 71-66 with 43 seconds left when freshman guard Amari McCottry’s steal led to Isaiah Swope’s layup. McCottry grabbed a defensive rebound, made another steal and claimed an offensive rebound in the closing seconds to keep getting the ball to Swope -- who found Kalu Anya inside for a basket with 22 seconds left and hit the decisive 3-pointer with 9 seconds left. He finished with 20 points and Gibson Jimerson scored 18. But the good times did not last. After fouling out with just six points at UMass, Robbie Avila missed 9-of-11 shots at St Joseph’s as his vexing slump continued. Jimerson turned his ankle and exited the game after scoring eight points. Isaiah Swope played all 40 minutes, but had nearly as many turnovers (five) as he did points (six). After pulling out to 30-20 lead in the first half, the Billikens faded to a 76-63 defeat. Kobe Johnson (21 points) tried to keep SLU in the game, to no avail.

SIU EDWARDSVILLE (17-8)

The Cougars have already matched their second-highest victory total since moving to Division I. After starting their OVC schedule with losses at Little Rock and SEMO, they have won 10 of 12 games. Last week the Cougars completed their season sweep of Eastern Illinois by rolling to a 66-41 victory Tuesday night to improve to 10-1 at home this season. With big man Kyle Thomas limited by foul trouble, Myles Thompson came off the bench to score 15 points and grab 11 rebounds. Ray’Sean Taylor had 13 points and four rebounds and Ring Malith had 10 points and 14 rebounds. Then SIUE hit the road for a 75-58 victory at Tennessee Tech with Ray’Sean Taylor scoring 28 points and Brian Taylor adding 19. Ray’Sean hit 7-of-10 shots from 3-point range after breaking out of his midseason shooting slump. He is 14-for-26 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

SEMO (15-10)

The Redhawks are rolling along with a five-game winning streak. They hit the road last week for victories at Morehead State (80-51) Thursday and Southern Indiana (79-74) on Saturday to improve to 10-4 in the OVC. St. Louisan Rob Martin (CBC) led the way by scoring 42 points and dishing nine assists while running the points in the two games. Our Town’s BJ Ward (Chaminade) scored 16 points at Morehead State and Teddy Washington Jr. and Brendan Terry each had 17 points and seven rebounds at Southern Indiana. A year after finishing 4-14 in OVC play, the Redhawks are in the fight for the regular season title and the top postseason tournament seed. Next up is a critical game at preseason OVC favorite Little Rock Tuesday night. SEMO, SIUE and Little Rock head into this week in a three-way tie for the league lead.

SIU CARBONDALE (12-13)

After starting 0-5 in Missouri Valley Conference play, the Salukis have gone on a 7-2 run under first-year coach Scott Nagy. They extended their upturn by winning 68-59 at Evansville Wednesday and 79-67 over UIC at home Saturday. Jarrett Hensley and Ali Dibba each scored 18 points and Kennard Davis Jr. added 14 as SIUC hit 15-of-29 shots from 3-point range at Evansville. All but six of the Salukis’ baskets came from beyond the arc. Davis scored 23 points and Drew Steffe scored 20 against UIC as SIUC’s hot shooting continued. The Salukis made 11-of-20 shots from 3-point range. Hensley had another strong all-around game with 10 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Next up is a difficult test Wednesday at Bradley.

LINDENWOOD (11-14)

The Lions finally broke through with an OVC road victory, prevailing 52-51 at UT Martin on Thursday on a 4-point play by Reggie Bass with 16 seconds left. Freshman Clayton Jackson from Cardinal Ritter scored a season-high 16 points off the bench to pace Lindenwood’s offense. Then the Lions fell short at Tennessee State Saturday, falling 84-76 despite getting 18 points from Anias Futrell and 17 from Bass. Lindenwood is 6-8 in the OVC this year after going 3-15 in league play last season. The Lions are back home this week for games against Morehead State and Southern Indiana.

MISSOURI STATE (8-17)

The Bears’ suffering during their Cuonzo Martin reunion continued with a 66-61 loss at home to Northern Iowa Wednesday and an 85-68 loss at Belmont Saturday. They fell to 1-13 in their farewell season to the MVC. Against Northern Iowa, four Missouri State starters scored in double figures, with Vincent Brady II and Michael Osei-Bonsu each leading the way with 13 points. Northern Iowa won the game at the free-throw line, outscoring the Bears 19-11 there. At Belmont, Jalen Hampton scored 20 points and Dez White (14) and Brady (13) also scored in double figures. Missouri State turned the ball over 20 times and allowed Belmont to hit 16-of-27 shots from 3-point range.