National Basketball Association
Illinois 70, American U. 55
When: 2:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 6, 2014
Where: State Farm Center, Champaign, Illinois
Officials:
# D.J. Carstensen, # Ray Perone, # Jim Schippers
Attendance:
13924
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 25 Illinois 70, American 55: Malcolm Hill scored 13 points as the Fighting Illini pulled away in the final 10 minutes.
Rayvonte Rice added 10 points, 8.4 below his season average, for Illinois (7-1), which shot 19-for-21 from the free-throw line. Maverick Morgan added a career-high eight points off the bench and fellow reserve Jaylon Tate also scored eight for the Fighting Illini, who travel to No. 9 Villanova on Tuesday.
Pee Wee Gardner scored 16 points to lead the Eagles. Jesse Reed added 13 points and John Schoof finished with 12 for American (5-4), which committed 18 turnovers and did not have an offensive rebound.
American went 6:02 without a field goal early in the first half and the Fighting Illini took that opportunity to seize the lead for good with an 8-1 run that put them on top 13-8. Another run of 11 unanswered points stretched the advantage to 30-13 with 2:57 left in the first half.
The Eagles managed to trim the deficit back to 13 at the half and got within nine twice in the opening 5 1/2 minutes of the second half and as close as eight with 10:42 remaining. The Fighting Illini shot back with an 8-0 run, however, and American never got back within single digits.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Rice was one of three Big Ten players who had scored at least 14 points in every game this season and he had scored at least 12 in every non-conference game of his Illinois career until Saturday. … Rice came into the game as the only Big Ten player ranked in the top five in scoring and rebounding. He also came in ranked in the top five in steals (2.4) and 3-point field goal percentage (51.9). … The Fighting Illini, who came in averaging 8.4 turnovers - second fewest in the nation - finished with 14.
Top Game Performances
| American U. |
|
Illinois |
|
Darius Gardner 16 |
Scoring |
Malcolm Hill 13 |
|
Charlie Jones 3 |
Assists |
Jaylon Tate 4 |
|
Charlie Jones 6 |
Rebounds |
Nnanna Egwu 7 |
|
Darius Gardner 5 |
Free Throws Made |
Rayvonte Rice 8 |
|
Darius Gardner 3 |
Steals |
Kendrick Nunn 4 |
|
Charlie Jones 1 |
Blocks |
Nnanna Egwu 3 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| American U.
|
55 |
50.0 |
5-12 |
8-11 |
10 |
16 |
3 |
7 |
19 |
| Illinois
|
70 |
47.9 |
5-12 |
19-21 |
10 |
27 |
3 |
8 |
14 |
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