Feb. 9, 2003

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• Illinois improves to 16-4, 6-3 in Big Ten play and remains undefeated at the Assembly Hall this season, moving to 11-0.

• Today marked Bill Self's 300th career game as a collegiate head coach. With the win over Ohio State, he has moved to within two wins of 200 for his career. Self has compiled an all-time record of 198-102 in his 9+ seasons and has a 69-21 record as the head coach at Illinois.

• Illinois' defense continues to be outstanding during Big Ten play. Coming into today's game, Illinois was allowing conference opponents to shoot just 38.8 percent from the floor and today their defense was even better. Ohio State was able to connect on just 31.1 percent of their shots from the floor and just 23.5 percent of their shots in the first half. Illinois has now held 10 of their last 14 opponents under 40-percent shooting from the floor this season.

• Illinois hit a season high 12 three-pointers this afternoon. Illinois' previous season best was 11, which they hit at Memphis on Dec. 28.

• Illinois' 49 first-half points are a season high.

• Four of those 12 treys were hit by freshman Deron Williams. Those four three-pointers were a career high for Williams as he tied his season-best mark for point production with 12 points. Williams also had 12 points in the season-opener vs. Lehigh.

• Roger Powell also hit double figures in scoring connecting on all five of his field goal attempts, while scoring 14 points. Those 14 points are a career high for Powell in Big Ten play.

• Brian Cook topped 1,500 career points this afternoon. Cook, who ranks seventh on the all-time Illinois scoring charts, has 1,521 points and is 12 points behind Andy Kaufmann (1989-93), who scored 1,533 points, for sixth place.

• Cook also reached the 20-point plateau for the 12th time this season. Cook scored 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting while grabbing five rebounds.