Jan. 29, 2003

Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Photo Gallery

• Illinois earned its first victory of the season when trailing at the half. Previously, Illinois was 0-2 when behind at the intermission, while Michigan falls to 9-2 when leading at the break.

• Tonight was also Illinois' largest comeback victory of the season. At the 17:19 mark of the second half, Illinois was down 39-28, 11 points, but was able to get the win. In addition, Illinois trailed 45-35 at the 10:49 mark, but rallied back with a 10-2 run to get within striking distance.

• Despite shooting a season-low 25 percent from the floor in the first half, Illinois and namely Brian Cook heated up in the second. The Illini shot 52.4 (11-of-21) from the floor, while Cook hit 8-of-10 shots from the floor, 80 percent in the second half.

• In addition to heating up from the floor, Illinois was hot from the foul line hitting 14-of-16 second-half free throws, while allowing Michigan just four free throw attempts in the second half.

• After playing just nine minutes and scoring four points in the first half, Cook had a second half for the ages, scoring 26 points on his 80-percent shooting while hitting all-eight of his second half free throws.

• In fact, Cook's second half scoring surge nearly topped Michigan's total for the half. Until Chris Hunter made the first half of a 1-and-1 with 0:41 left in the game, Cook equaled Michigan's second half scoring total.

• Cook's 30 points is the senior's second 30-point game of the season and is the first time an Illinois player has topped 30 points twice in a season since Kevin Turner in 1998.

• Cook also moved into eighth on Illinois' all-time scoring charts. For his career he has scored 1,486 points passing Dave Scholz (1967-69) who had 1,459 points and Nick Weatherspoon (1971-73) who had 1,481 points. Next on the list for Cook is Efrem Winters (1983-86) who scored 1,487 career points.

• Freshman James Augustine continues to play big in the post. Augustine registered his second consecutive double-double with an 11-point, 10-rebound performance.

• Illinois continues to excel in 3-point percentage defense during Big Ten play. Coming into the game, Illinois was holding conference foes to a Big Ten best 21-percent shooting from beyond the arc and tonight the Illini held the Big Ten's top three-point shooting team to 4-of-21 shooting, 19 percent.