Hill Guides Illini Past Northwestern

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Published on February 8 2017 6:25 am
Last Updated on February 8 2017 6:26 am

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) -- Malcolm Hill scored 14 points and Illinois beat Northwestern 68-61 on Tuesday night.

Te'Jon Lucas, Maverick Morgan and Michael Finke each had 11 points, while Hill added nine rebounds for Illinois (14-11, 4-8 Big Ten).

Bryant McIntosh led Northwestern (18-6, 7-4) with 21 points, but he committed an uncharacteristic six turnovers compared and made four assists. Vic Law had 16 points and nine rebounds.

Tied at 28 at halftime, no team enjoyed more than a six-point lead in the back-and-forth second half until the game's final moments. Lucas scored a layup with 1:37 remaining to put Illinois ahead 63-61, and Michael Finke added to the lead with a jumper at 1:09.

Following Law's 3-pointer at 3:31, Northwestern missed its next three field goals and committed four turnovers. The Wildcats' 33.9 field goal percentage Tuesday was a season-worst.

Hill continues to climb the Illinois all-time scoring list. His efforts on Tuesday moved him into sole possession of 8th place with 1,665 points, passing Mark Smith and Brandon Paul.

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The Illini return home to host Penn State on Saturday (1 pm CT on BTN)

ILLINOIS POSTGAME NOTES

• The Fighting Illini won their first true road game of the season to improve to 133-40 all-time against Northwestern and 62-26 in Evanston.

• After falling behind 59-56 with 3:31 left, Illinois finished the game on a 12-2 run. After the Wildcats tied the game at 61-61, the Illini closed on a 7-0 run over the game's final 1:37.

• The Illini defense held Northwestern to 33.9 percent shooting (19-of-56) and 30.0 percent from downtown (6-of-20), while also forcing 14 turnovers, continuing a trend of solid defense over the last three games. Over the last three games, the Orange and Blue defense is holding opponents to 37.4 percent from the field (67-of-179) and 32.3 percent from three-point range (20-of-62).

• Senior Malcolm Hill scored 14 points, all in the second half, to jump two spots to eighth place on the Illinois career scoring list. Hill finished the game with 1,665 points, moving past Mark Smith (1,653, 1978-81) and Brandon Paul (1,654, 2010-13) on the UI all-time list. Next up is Eddie Johnson in seventh place (1,692, 1978-81).

• It was Hill's 19th consecutive game scoring in double figures.

• Hill also added nine rebounds, three assists and three steals in the victory.

• Sophomore forward Michael Finke also came up big in the second half, scoring all 11 of his point and hitting 3-of-4 from behind the arc in the second stanza. Finke tied the game with a three-pointer at the 2:36 mark to start the 12-2 game-ending run fo the Illini. He had five points and two steals in the final 2:36 to help seal the victory.

• Freshman guard Te'Jon Lucas had career-highs in points (11), rebounds (5) and minutes (33) and also dished out a game-high six assists.

• Senior center Maverick Morgan was the fourth Illini in double-figures, scoring 11 points and pulling down four rebounds. It was Morgan's fifth straight game in double-figures and the 10th time in the last 11 games the big man scored 10+ points.

• Sophomore guard Jalen Coleman-Lands dished out a career-high five assists, including the go-ahead points with 1:37 left on a feed to Lucas, while also adding 5 points and 5 rebounds.