Illini handle Huskies: Surges early and late lift Illinois past pesky NIU
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| Northern Illinois' Bryan Hall (1) brings the ball up against Illinois' D.J. Richardson (1) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game at Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill., on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009. Illinois beat NIU 80-61. (AP Photo/John Dixon) |
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CHAMPAIGN – Freshman Brandon Paul is making an immediate impact for Illinois.
The sharp-shooting guard was the go-to man for the offense in the first half of No. 23 Illinois’ 80-61 win over Northern Illinois, when he scored all 20 of his points Tuesday night.
“The first half we came out with a lot of excitement,” said Paul, who led the team in scoring for the second consecutive game. “My teammates did a good job of giving me the ball. It was flying, it was going in. I felt good.”
Paul had 14 of Illinois’ first 21 points. He finished 6 of 16 from the field, including 4 of 8 from beyond the arc.
Paul’s outside shooting opened the lane for 7-foot-1 center Mike Tisdale and 6-9 forward Mike Davis. The two big men combined to shoot 7 of 15; Davis scored 14 and Tisdale had 10. Davis added a career-high 17 rebounds for his 11th career double-double.
“I knew they were going to shoot a lot of 3s and jack it really quick, so I tried to get into position,” Davis said of his rebounding. “I did a good job of that.”
Foul trouble by Demetri McCamey forced Illinois head coach Bruce Weber to give freshmen Paul and D.J. Richardson more minutes, though turnovers were a problem. The Illini gave the ball away 14 times while recording only 15 assists. The Illini turnovers resulted in 17 points for the Huskies.
“We had to face that predicament for the first time here,” said Weber of McCamey’s foul problems. “The young guys didn’t take care of the basketball, basically handed it to them, allowed them to get back in the game.”
“Guys just picked up their intensity on the defensive end,” NIU coach Ricardo Patton said. “We tried to pick off some passes and get some buckets at the basket. That’s what
turnovers lead to; they lead to easy buckets. We forced some late in the first half, and were able to claw our way back [into the game].”
The team made up for the ball-handling problems on the defensive end. Illinois had 10 blocks while holding the Huskies to 36.8 percent shooting, including 26.3 percent from behind the 3-point line.
Illinois shot 43.5 percent from the field. McCamey had eight assists.
“We made some plays,” Weber said. “We’re learning, it’s all new. We took another step, and now we’ve got to see if we can take another one.”
Northern Illinois gave Illinois (2-0) a scare at the end of the half, going on a 14-3 run to close the gap to 49-41 on a half-court buzzer beater by the Huskies’ Byran Hall.
“It was a game going into halftime,” Davis said. “The second half started out kind of slow so we had to dig in and get stops and see what this team’s made of.”
After cutting Illinois’ lead to three on a layup by Najul Ervin with 18:30 left in the game, a dunk by McCamey off a steal and an assist from Richardson extended the lead to five. A jumper by forward Dominique Keller and a layup by Davis extended the Illini’s lead to nine.
The Huskies didn’t let up, trimming the Illini’s lead to seven points with 12:27 remaining in the game but were unable to get any closer after Keller’s dunk followed by McCamey’s steal and layup put Illinois ahead by 11 and effectively shut the door on a Huskies comeback attempt.
Ervin and Tony Nixon led the Huskies (0-2) in scoring with 10 points each.
“Anytime you’re playing from behind, and you are scratching and clawing, trying to dig your way out of a hole, you are going to find yourself a little more fatigued,” Patton said. “Sometimes you don’t have enough to finish it, or take over the lead. It can be hard, when you’ve already been forced to go down such a long road just to get back into the fight.
“We played a very talented Illinois team [tonight], and it was a great experience for our players. I thought the game was probably a much better one for the majority of the
time than the final score indicated.”
Star of the game: Mike Davis, Illinois, 14 points & 17 rebounds for 11th career double-double, 2 blocks
Key performers: Brandon Paul, Illinois, 20 points (all in first half); Demetri McCamey, Illinois, 10 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals; Najul Ervin, NIU, 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks
Up next: Presbyterian at Illinois, 7 p.m. Saturday; Tennessee State at NIU, 7 p.m. Friday
