Injuries, a suspension and fatigue couldn’t stop Illinois from stretching the nation’s longest non-conference home-court winning streak to 49 games Friday night at Assembly Hall.
Seemingly oblivious to the adversity that has befallen them, the Illini overwhelmed Georgia Southern 85-50 for their third victory in a five-night span.
Coach Bruce Weber’s most esteemed player, forward Brian Randle, was in a Philadelphia hospital recovering from groin surgery earlier in the day. And again his most talented guards were cheerleaders on the bench–Jamar Smith, because of a severely strained left ankle suffered in Monday’s game, and Rich McBride, serving the fifth game of his six-game suspension that will end Tuesday.
It all seemed immaterial. The Illini (3-0) scored the first nine points and Georgia Southern (1-2) remained far behind for the rest of the night.
“Hats off to Illinois for being in the position they’re in and coming out the way they did,” Georgia Southern coach Jeff Price said. “We go into Duke and we’re leading at the half. We come in here and we’re buried right away.”
Effective shooting by guards Trent Meacham and Calvin Brock took up the slack on offense and the defense forced 27 turnovers, enabling the Illini to construct and maintain their enormous lead methodically while Weber gave his subs a lot of court time. Meacham hit three shots from beyond the three-point arc in scoring 19 points, and Brock was 7 of 11 from the field and sank both of his three-point attempts in scoring 17.
Meacham believes the unexpected minutes the projected reserves are playing as starters will pay dividends for the Illini in the long run.
“As a whole team we’ve gained confidence,” the junior transfer from Dayton said. “It’s just going to make us that much tougher when we get everybody back.”
Randle’s surgery went well and Weber said he was scheduled to return to Champaign on Saturday.
“They found a little more damage than anticipated,” Weber said. “The doctor was happy they did it. The doctor said he could have played the season with pain, but he probably would have had to take time off and miss some games.”
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nmilbert@tribune.com
