Freshman guards help Illinois fly past NIU
CHAMPAIGN - Illinois freshman guards Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson look like they have the answer to everything.
Well, almost everything.
Paul piled up 20 points in the opening 17 minutes of Tuesday night's game with Northern Illinois.
Richardson capped No. 23 Illinois' 80-61 win over the Huskies with a flying tomahawk jam that pleased those who remained of the 14,979 at Assembly Hall.
"I think they're certainly as talented as any freshmen that came through the Big 12 in the 14 years I spent there," NIU coach Ricardo Patton said. "They have a very long future in the game of basketball."
But in their near to immediate future, they need to calm one of Illinois coach Bruce Weber's fears: Who's the team's backup point guard?
When asked to handle the ball after starting point guard Demetri McCamey sat down late in the first half with 2 fouls, Paul and Richardson panicked and Northern Illinois pounced.
The Huskies slashed a 19-point deficit to 8 at the break as sophomore point guard Bryan Hall kept converting turnovers into points.
Hall even banked home a half-court shot just before the halftime horn for his first career 3-pointer.
NIU (0-2) got as close as 49-46 early in the second half before Illinois (2-0) tightened its handle and its defense to pull away.
The Illini's struggles late in the first half - after playing a solid opening 17 minutes - were the first thing on Weber's mind after the game.
"Demetri got into foul trouble and we had to face that predicament for the first time here," Weber said. "The young guys didn't take care of the basketball. They basically handed to them, allowed them to get back into the game to their credit - put our backs to the wall a little bit."
Illinois moved out of danger with a multipronged effort after halftime.
Junior forward Mike Davis delivered his 11th career double-double with 14 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. McCamey racked up 10 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Dominique Keller and Mike Tisdale added 10 points apiece. And while Paul finished with 20 points (he missed all 5 of his second-half shots), he led the team's defense-oriented "Matto" chart with 11 points as he blocked 2 shots and took two charges.
"I really don't know what happened in the second half," Paul said. "(My shot) wasn't going in, so I tried to focus a little more on the defensive end."
Northern Illinois, which waited 103 years for its initial chance to play the state's flagship school, acted like it didn't want to waste it.
The Huskies played without top offensive threat Xavier Silas (broken right hand), and they handled things well for the first 23 minutes or so.
Freshman Tony Nixon, who took Silas' spot in the lineup, contributed 10 points, and senior forward Najul Ervin worked hard for 10 points and 7 rebounds.
But after pulling within 49-46 with 18:30 to go, the Huskies managed just 4 points over the next nine minutes.
"I felt the game," Patton said, "was probably a lot better game for the majority of the time than the final score."