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November 15, 2011

Illini cruise to 2-0

BY ROB WITZEL Commercial-News

CHAMPAIGN — The Illinois Fighting Illini Men’s basketball team rolled through the SIU Edwardsville Cougars 66-46 Monday night giving them their second win in as many games.

DJ Richardson led the Illini with a career-high 20 points while Tyler Griffey recorded his first double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.

“Especially after the two exhibition games I wasn’t looking to force anything, I was letting the game come to me.” Griffey said. “Tonight, I was in the right spots at the right time.”

Joining Griffey in the rebound leaders was Meyers Leonard with 11.

“We did a great job on the boards, which is something I was worried about,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

While the orange and blue walked away with the win, Weber said there is still room for improvement, as the team struggled with turnovers.

Illinois had 22 for the night. Weber has a couple ideas on how to improve

“We got to watch ourselves and see what happens, and patience we can watch film and work on passing and catching in practice,’’ he said.

Illinois struggled early, scoring just 10 points in the opening nine minutes, the defense however held the Cougars to just 4 points in that stretch.

“We’re definitely further along defensively than we are offensively,’’ Weber said.

After the 10 minute mark the Illini got rolling outscoring the Cougars 11-5.

SIUE crept back to as close as six points but the Illini finished the half with a 7-0 run that ended with a buzzer beating layup from Nnanna Egwu.

The score at halftime was 36-23 in favor of the Illini.

SIUE came out of the locker room hot on an opening 5-0 streak but eventually the Illini warmed up and answered back.

The Cougars would creep to within seven of Illinois but never any closer.

Illinois and SIUE would go back and forth before Illinois went on 15-2 run that busted the game wide open. Leonard led that particular streak with six points.

Both teams struggled down the stretch and when the final buzzer rang the Illini finished with their second straight win.

The next game for Illinois is Thursday against Lipscomb. Tip off is set for 8 p.m. and that game can be heard locally on WDAN-AM 1490 and WDNL-FM 102.1

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