It certainly wasn’t a typical North Carolina team that the Illinois basketball team soundly defeated, 79-67, Tuesday at the Assembly Hall in the Big Ten ACC Challenge.
Still, there is always something special about beating one of the most storied programs in college basketball, an experienced Illinois team, which started four seniors, was able build a comfortable second-half lead against a team that boasts more former McDonald’s All-Americans than wins so far this season.
“To me, the game in a nutshell was, good veteran players played like good veteran players. Demetri (McCamey) was sensational,” North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said. “We had a couple of minutes there where we didn’t play too intelligently.”
The game was close in the early going, as North Carolina used its size and athleticism on the inside to build a 14-13 lead in the first 10 minutes, on the backs of forwards Tyler Zeller and John Henson, who combined for 12 points.
But Illinois’ senior point guard McCamey hit a 3-pointer, his second of three from beyond the arc on his way to a 17-point, eight-assist night, to make it 16-14 with 9:10 remaining in the first half, and the Illini didn’t trail the rest of the game.
“We go when Demetri goes, and he started off hot,” said senior Mike Davis, who scored 20 points to go with 10 rebounds and five assists. “To me it was an all-around game offensively for all of us.”
After D.J. Richardson hit a 3 as time expired in the first half, the Illini took a 37-30 lead into halftime. The Illini never trailed by more than seven in the second half, beating North Carolina for the second time since their loss to the Tar Heels in the National Championship game in 2005.
“We talk about playing in a zone, in that ‘magic level’ … you’ve got to concentrate, you’ve got to have discipline,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. “In the first half we played with no discipline. I think once we started doing the things that we practiced, we really started taking control of the game.”
For North Carolina, who plummeted from ninth in the preseason ranks to nowhere near the rankings now, it was yet another bump in the road for a disappointing season thus far.
For Illinois, it could be seen as a statement win they were looking for since their overtime loss to Texas at Madison Square Garden 12 days before.
“We did our part, we took care of it at home,” Weber said. “We got stops, we got deflections, and our play-hard was off the charts. That led to some easy baskets for us.”