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Indianapolis, IN (AP) -- Fairleigh Dickinson kept its promise and made No. 1 Illinois work in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Illini watched the Knights come from seven points down to take a brief lead in the first half, but they started the second half with a 14-2 run on their way to a 67-55 win over 16th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday night.
Dee Brown scored 19 points and Luther Head added 13 to lead top-seeded Illinois (33-1). The Illini will meet Nevada, a 61-57 winner over Texas, in the second round on Saturday, with the winner advancing to the Chicago Regional semifinals next Thursday in Rosemont, Ill.
FDU’s Tamien Trent drained a long 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer that left Illinois up only 32-31 at the break, but the Illini scored 22 of the first 30 second-half points to take a 52-39 lead with 7:51 to go.
Junior forward and first team all-NEC performer Gordon Klaiber scored 24 points to lead Fairleigh Dickinson, which was making its fourth NCAA appearance in coach Tom Green’s 22 seasons. Senior guard Tamien Trent, a second team all-NEC pick, scored 11 and 7-footer Andrea Crosariol, a sophomore center, had six points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
"I think we earned the rest of the country’s respect," FDU senior guard Mensah Peterson said after the game. "But a loss is a loss and we really wanted to make history tonight."
The Knights (20-13) had been promising all week they would play hard and compete and they were true to their word.
"I think we were 27-point underdogs," Peterson continued. "That wasn’t happening tonight."
They converted three offensive rebounds and a steal into points to erase an early 17-10 deficit with a 10-2 run, grabbing a 20-19 lead with 7:30 to go in the first half. Then after Illinois dropped three consecutive 3-pointers and grabbed a 30-20 lead, the Knights outscored the Illini 11-2 the final four minutes of the half.
If the Illini have a soft spot -- and it’s been hard to find this season -- it’s their inside game. FDU outplayed them in the paint early.
Fairleigh Dickinson outscored Illinois 20-10 inside and outrebounded the Illini 21-12 in the first half. The Knights won the battle of the boards 42-30 overall, with Crosariol and Klaiber each getting eight rebounds. FDU also limited the Illini to 42.6 percent shooting from the floor.
James Augustine, Illinois’ best inside player, grabbed 15 rebounds to go with 11 points.
Brown started the second-half run with a three-point play and the Illini were off and running. Head dropped a 3, Brown kissed one off the top of the glass, then got a nice feed from Head for a layup and drained a 3-pointer of his own that put the Illini ahead 46-33 with 13:54 to go.
FDU closed the gap to 46-37 but then Jack Ingram had two straight baskets and the Illini held the Knights scoreless for the next 4:25, building their 53-39 lead.
Fairleigh Dickinson, which averaged 1,239 fans per home game this season, also had to contend with thousands of orange-clad Illini fans who let out their first big cheer when the pep band arrived during the second half of the Texas-Nevada game. The Illini, playing only 120 miles from home, were greeted with a huge cheer when they took the floor for pregame warmups.
Fairleigh Dickinson didn’t bring a band, but a few hundred faithful fans dotted the RCA Dome stands, and the Knights did get plenty of cheers before the night was over.
Post-Game Quotes
Illinois Head Coach Bruce Weber
On thoughts about game;
“Obviously, we weren’t as sharp as we want to be. We built a lead in the first half, let it slip, then
built it back up in the second half. Our guys know we’re going to have to play better if we’re
going to advance in this tournament.”
On first half performance:
“I just felt we needed to focus. We had breakdowns several times on things we don’t do. We’ve
had a tendency against teams that maybe don’t have the prestige, to let up at times.”
On James Augustine:
“He’s been very active. He’s played very aggressive basketball. Other than a two or three game
stretch when he got tentative, he’s played good basketball. He’s made himself one of the better
big men in the country.’’
On Dee Brown:
“He really got our energy going. He hit some crazy shots when he got fouled but they still went
in. We rely on Dee for the great energy. If we’re going to advance, we have to have everyone
playing, and playing great basketball.”
On matchup against Nevada:
‘‘I don’t know a lot about them. I know they are a good team. They advanced last year, and they
won even more games this year. We’re going to have to play good basketball if we want to
advance."
Illinois Forward James Augustine
On regaining the rebounding edge:
“It was something we put on the board at halftime. That's something we need to take advantage
of because they were outrebounding us by a lot at halftime. I think we just needed to rebound
better. The ball was bouncing my way and there’s no reason why I can’t take advantage of that.”
On whether the team was only playing in spurts:
Today we did play in spurts. We do have to put it together. I don’t know if the best is still yet to
come, but it has to be if we’re going to beat six teams and keep going down the road. We have to put a full game together.
Illinois Forward Roger Powell Jr.
On the matchup with Gordon Klaiber:
“He was a good player. He made a couple big shots and got some good screens. It’s hard to stick with him. He played big time."
On the tentativeness in the first half:
“Like coach said, all of the games have been close and that was very characteristic of our team in the first half. Thank God we got it out of the way now so we can pick it up next game and play
the game of basketball we’re capable of playing.’’
Illinois Guard Dee Brown
On the team missing some open looks in the first half:
“We just missed shots, there's no excuse for it. We had some good opportunities. We were more disappointed in our defense. We never worry about our offense because we rely on our defense to win games.”
On the team’s mood at the half:
“We talked about corning out and playing with fire. We played down to the level of our competition and weren’t playing good basketball. They came out and played extremely well.”
On the team’s run to start the second half:
“It’s always important to come out and get it going in the first five minutes. We came out with a
Iot of energy and that really helped us.”