Illinois 58 Northwestern 43

That's the first time all season I've been impressed by an Illini win. Illinois, who always seems to freeze when confronted with zone, dismantled Northwestern, whose biggest weapon is zone. Illinois broke out the 17-3 lead by learning to find holes in the zone and dumping it down low early to free up outside shooters later on in the half. It was Pruitt and Carter getting easy buckets at first, then McBride and Fraizer (!) hitting wide open 3s to extend the lead.

Illinois also held off the big run of Northwestern in the first half, when the Wildcats narrowed the lead to three late in the first half. Shaun Pruitt hit two free throws (in a row!) and Rich his a three to put the Illini up eight going into halftime. After a slow start to the second half, Illinois put it away in the second half and cruised to the win.

Interesting game stats included Illinois' free throw percentage (71.4%), Shaun Pruit's rebound total (15 to NU's team total of 16) and Rich McBride's three pointers made (5 vs. NU's team total of 3). None of this was really surprising though, as NU honestly looked like it was one of my local high school teams. There was the small gym, the huge number of white guys playing with one token black player, not to mention the number of large white men in the stands.

So now the Illini have a short turn around before the biggest game so far this season at Indiana. That game will be a little different, as half the stadium won't be filled with Illini fans and I'm thinking some of the student section for Indiana is actually going to show up for the contest.

Let's just hope that Illinois can make another group of portly old white men sad.

Illini Defense Secures Win Over Wildcats (Daily Illini)