Illinois cruises past Florida Southern 80-60

CHAMPAIGN -- Trent Meacham scored 17 points and added four assists to lead Illinois past Florida Southern 80-60 in an exhibition game Sunday.

Coming off their first losing season in eight years, the Illini struggled to score early in their first action of the season but kept Florida Southern from building any kind of lead by forcing 12 first-half turnovers.

Illinois found its rhythm on offense and came out of its early shooting funk midway through the first half with a 21-5 run highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers by seniors Meacham and Calvin Brock that propelled the Illini to a 54-28 halftime lead.

But while Illinois came to life midway through the first half, they fell back to sleep in the second. The Illini committed 13 second-half turnovers and were outscored 33-28 in the final 20 minutes, leaving head coach Bruce Weber with some concerns.

"We still need to learn how to finish plays, halves and games, though, because the majority of our team has not played a lot of minutes, so these games are important for us," Weber said.

Illinois had 11 players in the scoring column, three reaching double digits, including Meacham. The hometown guard from Champaign enters the season as Illinois' leading returning scorer. He scored 12 of his game-high 17 in the first-half, hitting a team-high four 3-pointers on six attempts.

"Our offense really got going for everyone once we picked it up on defense and were able to get out on the fast break and become more fluid in our motion offense," Meacham said.

Preston Fredrick led Florida Southern with 13 points and Robin Rayfield and Rob Eldridge added 12 points each, but the Moccasins struggled to take care of the ball, committing 19 turnovers while being held to 39.2-percent from the field (20-51) including 5-of-19 from 3-point range.

"We looked a little nervous and Illinois' physical size just wore us down," said Florida Southern head coach Linc Darner, who played at Purdue when Weber was an assistant coach there.

Sophomore forward Mike Davis led all Illini bench players with 12 points and added six rebounds, as the team's bench scored 42 points.

"Coach told me that I'm a sophomore now and that I have to act like it," Davis said. "I'm more familiar with the offense now and just have to play hard and find the open spots and rebound."

Illinois wraps up its exhibition portion of its schedule next Sunday against Lewis University before starting the regular season Nov. 14 at home against Eastern Washington.