Nov. 20, 2000

Box Score

By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer

LAHAINA, Hawaii - Illinois' second game under coach Bill Self was one that might be really big as the season wears on.

Frank Williams scored 22 points and the eighth-ranked Illini beat UNLV 74-69 Monday night in the opening round of the Maui Invitational.

The Illini advanced to Tuesday's semifinals and will play No. 6 Maryland, which beat Louisville 95-73 in the first round.

Self, who left Tulsa to replace Lon Kruger when he took over the Atlanta Hawks, didn't have a very good start in the second game at his new school. UNLV (1-1) had a 28-14 lead in the first half by making five of its first seven shots from 3-point range.

Illinois (2-0) used runs of 9-0 and 11-0 to get back in the game, and it was tied at 36 at halftime.

The Illini took advantage of UNLV's lack of depth - Chris Richardson is under indefinite suspension for an NCAA violation and Lou Kelly broke his foot earlier in the month - and foul trouble - four Runnin' Rebels fouled out - to take command.

"We are going to look back at this one and draw on it for a long time to come," Self said. "This was a grind-it-out game. We didn't play particularly well and nothing went right early, but I'd rather tough mentally they way we were tonight than tough physically."

Williams' jumper with 9:11 left gave Illinois the lead for good at 56-54. He hit the game's biggest shot, a driving jumper with the shot clock expiring that gave the Illini a 68-59 lead. He then made four free throws for a 72-62 lead with 48 seconds left.

Williams also had six assists and five steals.

"I thought Frank picked his spots well tonight," Self said. "Although we didn't execute great our shot selection was good."

Marcus Griffin had 15 points for Illinois, while Brian Cook had 12 points and 14 rebounds.

"Last year, if we went down by 14, you would have seen it in our body language," Griffin said. "Not this year. We just stayed there went possession by possession and came back hard."

Jermaine Lewis had 19 points for UNLV, while Trevor Diggs added 18, all but three on 3-pointers. The Runnin' Rebels finished 12-for-23 from beyond the arc, while Illinois was just 2-for-9.

"If there was a positive it's that we didn't play our best basketball," UNLV coach Bill Bayno said. "I know my big guys will play better than that. We knew going in it would be a battle and we scrapped and fought and we had a chance to win."

UNLV center Kaspars Kambala had 14 points, five rebounds and seven turnovers before being one of the players to foul out.

"I got in foul trouble and so did other guys and that didn't help," he said. "Our guards really stepped up and made shots and got us ahead, but we just couldn't keep it."