Illini come down hard on Wildcats

CHAMPAIGN -- Here's how badly Illinois outclassed Northwestern in an unprecedented Sunday night affair at Assembly Hall.

During the opening 13-plus minutes, the Illini owned more points on spectacular alley-oop dunks by junior forward Rodney Alexander (6) than the Wildcats had altogether (5).

Though Alexander stopped soaring for eye-popping baskets, multiple teammates (including reinstated senior center Shaun Pruitt) took over the scoring while Northwestern never got rolling.

Illinois used huge runs at the start of each half to turn what could have been an intriguing Big Ten matchup into a 70-37 laugher before an announced sellout of 16,618.

Trent Meacham led Illinois (10-11, 2-6) with 18 points, while Pruitt led a well-balanced supporting cast with 9 points and 3 rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench.

The Illini's widest conference win since their magical 2004-05 season coincided with Northwestern tying its lowest point total during the 225-game Bill Carmody era.

Kevin Coble and Craig Moore, NU's top two scorers, didn't hit the scoring column until 12:26 remained. They finished with 8 points -- more than 22 below their collective average.

"I looked up and we had 5 points for two-thirds of the first half," Carmody said. "They did a nice job defensively on Coble and Moore. If those two guys don't score 30 between them, it's trouble for us."

Coble, who'd been taking 1 shot every 2.4 minutes since returning to the Wildcats (6-11, 0-7) at the start of January, squeezed off just 4 shots in 25 minutes.

Illinois senior Brian Randle clung to Coble (3 points) even as he fought an illness that kept him out of Saturday's practice.

"Our team doctor should probably get the game ball," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "He loaded (Randle) with anything he had in his cabinet trying to get him back.

"Brian, he was coughing and spitting and whatever, but he focused on what he could do, and that was stop Coble."

Several Illini took turns hounding Moore, who was coming off a career-high 28-point effort against Michigan State. Moore (5 points) missed his first 7 shots and didn't score until he swished a 3-pointer with 4:46 to go.

Northwestern shot 31 percent -- tied for its worst showing of the season -- and just 26 percent on 3-pointers.

"They all just pressure the ball," Northwestern junior Sterling Williams. "They deny the first and second pass, so usually you have to look for the next guy and skip it across the court. Their defense was good throughout the game and our offense wasn't good."

Meanwhile, Illinois didn't miss a shot inside the 3-point arc during the first 13-plus minutes as the hosts built a 24-5 lead.

Of course, it's hard to miss when you're looking down at the basket.

Three times in a five-minute stretch, Alexander soared above the square to grab lob passes and throw them down on the Wildcats.

The first one came on a feed from Demetri McCamey that seemed too high for Wilt Chamberlain standing on Shaquille O'Neal's shoulders.

But Alexander stopped the ball's flight out of bounds with his right hand, brought it to his left hand, and flushed it through.

"I thought it was too high at first," Alexander said. "I just kept going some kind of way. I guess I got a push … someone gave me a push."