Brown gets back on track in Illinois win

~ The senior scored 18 points, as the Illini beat Northwestern 58-47.

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Dee Brown feels the pressure. The expectations on Illinois are high and how far the Illini go largely hinges on their point guard's performance, which hadn't been great lately.

"I've got to continue to play well. We're a better team when I play well," Brown said. "That's the pressure of being an athlete."

Brown broke out of his shooting slump with 18 points and had eight assists to lead No. 7 Illinois to a 58-47 victory over Northwestern on Saturday.

After shooting a combined 9 of 39 in the previous three games, Brown was 6-for-10 from the field and 2-for-5 from 3-point range, banking one from the top as the shot clock expired just over 7 minutes into the game.

Rich McBride added 12 points, and Shaun Pruitt grabbed 10 rebounds for the Illini (17-2, 3-2 Big Ten).

Coming off a 62-60 loss Tuesday at No. 13 Indiana, Illinois hit nine of 23 3-pointers.

Northwestern (9-8, 2-4) shot 35 percent (17-for-48) on its way to its fourth straight loss.

Mohamed Hachad scored all of his 14 points in the second half for Northwestern. Leading scorer Vedran Vukusic missed his first 13 shots and scored a season-low five points, his first game in single digits. His first basket was a 3-pointer that pulled Northwestern to within 53-43 with 1:37 left in the game.

But the Illini hung on.

"We've got to decide are we going forward?" Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "Are we going to be special? Or are we just going to be OK?"

A year ago, Illinois was special. It reached the NCAA finals for the first time.

This season?

Weber said the Illini are better defensively than offensively.

"These guys know how important it is," Weber said. "We're locked in. We've done a nice job. We can't let our offense affect our defense. We break down on the defensive end because somebody misses a shot and they don't run back. Or they don't communicate."

Northwestern's Vince Scott scored 30 seconds into the game, but the Wildcats missed their next six field goals over the next 7-plus minutes as Illinois opened a 13-4 lead. Brian Randle, McBride and Brown hit 3-pointers during that stretch, and Illinois never looked back.

With more than half the crowd of 8,117 decked out in orange, the Illini made themselves at home.

Illinois picked apart Northwestern's 2-1-2 trap and took the Wildcats out of their offense. They seemed flustered and did not get the ball to Vukusic in the post.

Brown, meanwhile, found his stroke.

"I'm going to shoot 'em, anyway," said Brown, who was 1-for-9 against Indiana. "I'm going to go 1-for-9, 1-for-30, 1-for-50. If I don't make one more shot this season, I'm still going to play the way I play and do the things I do."

The only anxious moment for the Illini in the first half was when Randle caught an elbow to his forehead and fell as he tried to finish an alley-oop about 9 minutes into the game. He got five stitches and returned with 2:03 left in the first half.

"I was tipping the ball around, and the next thing I know, I got an elbow," Randle said. "I went down. I thought I had a bump. I took my hand from my head and there was blood."