Koby Brea scored 23 points and Lamont Butler added 14 points and 5 assists as Kentucky advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament by beating Illinois, 84-75, Sunday night in the second round at Fiserv Forum.

Kentucky opened the second half on an 10-0 run, thanks to another block from big man Amari Williams, a bucket from Otega Oweh and hot shooting from Butler, who was at the time a perfect 4 of 4 with 12 points.

In a stellar game between two evenly matched teams, Kentucky really only had one standout advantage over Illinois on paper. Steals. Kentucky averaged 7.1 steals per game this season compared to 4.3 for Illinois – and the Wildcats used that advantage to set the tone for the game and take a 37-32 halftime lead.

Kentucky has so many defensive ball hawks – Butler, Brea, Collin Chandler - that Illinois struggled offensively, shooting just 5 of 14 early on. And those steals only aided Kentucky’s offense, as Chandler’s led to a three pointer from Butler.

Kentucky already had four steals in the first 10 minutes; the Wildcats took the 25-15 lead with 8:00 left and had 8 steals by that point. It would finish with a whopping 14 total.

"We have Lamont Butler as the head of defense," said Brea. "When you see him pick you up, it has to put something in your stomach, some nerves or something. He's the head of the snake for us. And we see how hard he goes, and it makes us want to go just as hard. He sets the tone for us."

Illinois fought back with several baskets from Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivisic to cut Kentucky’s lead to 10. But once again Butler stole the ball and dished to Brandon Garrison for the deuce to stop the rally. Kentucky had the 74-62 lead with 3:21 left and held on.

"I will say from day one our focus was winning a national championship," said Butler. "So any way possible weare going to do that. The expectation here at Kentucky is to win. And we got a bunch of winners here, and we wantto continue that tradition."

Illinois was led by Kylan Boswell's 23 points.

Butler, playing with a less restrictive brace on his injured shoulder, played really well defensively.

"I was able to be more free today. I was just out there playing my game, trying to be aggressive," said Butler.

Kentucky's Amari Williams was an overall force

He had three timely blocks, two of them against Illinois’ freshman Will Riley. He also had 10 rebounds – 8 of them on defense. As a 7-footer he can run the floor well and get in to a low defensive stance. If he has a flaw it’s that he can be just a little too intense at times but he’s always looking to the bench for coach Mark Pope’s guidance.

His willingness to use his body to set a good screen – Brea hit a nice jumper when Williams did that – also helped Kentucky, and as long as he doesn’t foul it will be an asset going forward for the Wildcats.

But the best thing about him is he plays head’s up basketball and has judgement on good plays. He tries to direct teammates and one time got all over Brea for missing the cut on a backdoor pass that would have been an easy Kentucky basket. He finished with 6 assists. A grad student out of England, it will be interesting to see what NBA teams want him.

"Yeah, I had Weetabix this morning," said Williams.

"Tell the whole story," said Pope. "Amari Williams, guys, is 10 rebounds, 8 points, 6 assists, 1 turnover, 3 blocks. Incredible energy on the floor. Go ahead, we're working on an NIL deal right now."

"I had something called Weetabix, which is from England," said Williams. It's like Shredded Wheat. My parents always forced me to eat it growing up. So (indiscernible) did a good job of finding an international store out here in Milwaukee, and he got me Weetabix. I had about three of them this morning. Coach Pope joined me too, and Brandon Garrison. Yeah, I feel like that helped my performance today for sure."

Kylan Boswell tries to keep Illinois in the game

The Illini got so many great plays from Boswell offensively, as he sliced his way through the interior defense time and again for gritty plays and much-needed buckets. He had the vision to see the mismatch Williams on him too as well and faked right around the big man easily for a dribble and drive score.

He can also score outside and has a fearless nature to him. He shot 9-14 and added 6 assists. He could be more of a vocal leader but what he did to keep Illinois in the game was impressive.

Deep Kentucky bench does its job

If Kentucky goes far in this tournament it will be in part because of the bench.

Illinois got hardly any scoring at all the first 28 minutes of the game from its subs and yet there were 12 bench points for Kentucky at that time. The Wildcats bench finished with 20 points. That’s all the more impressive given that Pope had to rehaul the roster coming in to this season.

Kentucky is the first Sweet 16 team to return no points from last year's team.

"We fight for one another," said Williams. "We play together basketball. I feel like we gelled a lot throughout the year, even from the first time we we're seeing each other in June. Just knowing that and knowing how together we are, that's really the reason why we made that possible."