Illinois struggles by FDU

INDIANAPOLIS -- 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 the 16th-seeded Knights 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 Mensah Peterson 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.

Gordon Klaiber scored 24 points to lead Fairleigh Dickinson, which was making its fourth NCAA appearance in coach Tom Green's 22 seasons. Tamien Trent scored 11 and 7-footer Andrea Crosariol had three blocked shots.

The Knights (20-13) had been promising all week they would play hard and compete and they were true to their word.

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 4 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.

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.