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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Practice? Who needs practice?
After sitting out of drills for a week with a bruised elbow, Sergio McClain came off the bench to score 16 points and nine rebounds as No. 8 Illinois opened the season Friday with an 86-57 victory over Maine.
It was the senior’s best outing in almost two seasons, offering Illinois fans a flashback to the promise he showed winning four state titles at Peoria Manual High School.
“Coaches have guys they like to call winners and Sergio has experience with winning,” Maine coach John Giannini said. “He understands his strengths and he knows how to win.”
McClain said he wanted to inaugurate new coach Bill Self with a victory at Assembly Hall, and make a good impression. He did both.
“Sergio was great,” Self said. “But he’ll probably think he should never practice because he hasn’t practiced since last Saturday. I really thought he was probably the best player on the court tonight.”
The Illini gave Self his first win here with dominating play inside and feisty defense, trademarks of his successful teams at Tulsa.
One of McClain’s former teammates at Manual, center Marcus Griffin, added 15 points as the Illini pounded the ball inside. The Black Bears shot 35 percent and committed 27 turnovers.
“Their defense was excellent,” Giannini said. “We didn’t have as many answers as we would have liked. We just had a hard time scoring and we think we’re a pretty good offensive basketball team.”
The Illini shot poorly at the start, but easily ran away when they committed to forcing the ball inside. McClain and Griffin kept asking for passes underneath and pushing the ball up even in a crowd.
McClain scored six points during a 19-5 run that ended with the Illini ahead 45-23. The Illini led 46-29 at the half and did not change the plan.
Short jumpers, layups and tip-ins helped the Illini outscore the Bears 16-6 to start the second half.
The Black Bears could not match the Illini inside. By midway through the second half, starting forward Carvell Ammons had fouled out and five other Bears were in foul trouble.
The fouls created by Illinois’ inside game helped pad the margin, with the Illini hitting 16 of 26 free throws.
Self went with Lucas Johnson in the starting spot presumed to be McClain’s before the season, but that’s because McClain hadn’t practiced.
“Most of that was adrenalin,” McClain said. “I was feeding off the crowd, off my teammates.”
Maine got 18 points and 10 rebounds from Huggy Dye, whose performance came in a homecoming of sorts. Dye played high school basketball in nearby Danville. Julian Dunkley added 14 points for Maine.
Self was happy with the defense and his starting backcourt of Cory Bradford and Frank Williams playing turnover-free ball. Bradford added 11 points and Brian Cook had 10 for Illinois.
Another bright spot, Self said, was that players seemed focused on Friday’s game instead of Saturday morning’s flight to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational. Personally, he suffered through some opening-night jitters.
Fighting Illini 86, Black Bears 57
Maine (0-1) Illinois (0-1)
Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP
Dunkley 5 10 2 3 14 Johnson 2 5 3 5 7
Ammons 2 9 0 2 4 Cook 4 6 1 2 10
Greene 0 7 4 6 4 Griffin 6 11 3 5 15
Jackson 0 3 3 4 3 Bradford 3 7 3 4 11
Dye 8 15 0 1 18 Williams 3 12 0 0 7
Waterman 0 0 0 1 0 Melton 1 4 0 1 3
Cavalieri 2 4 2 2 6 Mast 0 2 0 0 0
Tibbetts 0 0 0 0 0 Cross 1 2 0 0 3
Riley 0 0 0 0 0 Archibald 3 3 0 0 6
Haynes 1 6 0 0 2 Harrington 2 5 0 0 6
Croom 0 0 0 0 0 Howard 1 3 0 0 2
Brown 2 2 0 0 4 McClain 5 7 6 9 16
White 1 3 0 0 2
Totals 21 59 11 19 57 Totals 31 67 16 26 86
Maine 29 57
Illinois 46 86
3-pt. goals: Maine (4-20): Dunkley 2-5, Ammons 0-1, Greene 0-1, Jackson 0-2, Dye 2-5, Cavalieri 0-2, Haynes 0-4; Illinois (8-20): Johnson 0-1, Cook 1-2, Bradford 2-4, Williams 1-4, Melton 1-3, Mast 0-1, Cross 1-1, Harrington 2-4
Attendance: 13,044
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