Dec. 29, 2000

Box Score
Illini Wrap (video version)
Illini Wrap (audio version)
Post-game (audio) interviews with centers Marcus Griffin and Robert Archibald, as well as Coach Bill Self

By RICK GANO
AP Sports Writer

ROSEMONT, Ill. - They'd clanged 3-pointers left and right in a loss at Texas, so it was no surprise that No. 9 Illinois decided to go inside Friday night against Illinois-Chicago.

"Coming off a loss we wanted to go back to the basics of what we are about," said Robert Archibald who had career highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds as the Illinois beat the Flames 77-64.

"Part of that is to get the ball inside to Marcus (Griffin), Brian (Cook) and myself and play pressure defense. Inside we seek contact. Something we talk about is having collisions. We work for the position inside," Archibald added.

Coming off the eight-point loss to Texas when they shot 4-of-25 on 3-pointers, the Illini dumped the ball into 6-foot-9 Marcus Griffin, who finished with 21 points, and the 6-11 Archibald, who had 14 of his points in the second half.

"We stressed making easy shots," Griffin said. "Sometimes when we had mismatches down low, the guards did the job of getting us the ball."

UIC coach Jimmy Collins, an assistant at Illinois for 13 years, said his team was mismatched inside.

"Their post players look like men playing against our boys out there," he said.

"We know Frank Williams and Cory (Bradford) shoot a lot of shots. But we understand as observers that it doesn't make sense to just fire from the outside when you got that beef inside."

The victory allowed the Illinii to finish their non-conference schedule 10-3 with the losses to the Longhorns, Arizona and Duke.

"We played the best schedule in America and we're 10-3," coach Bill Self said. "I'd have to give us a B plus or an A minus, something like that."

Leading by eight points at the half, the Illini went on a 15-6 run after the break and went up by 17 when Sergio McClain tipped in a missed free throw by Archibald. Two free throws by Cook pushed the lead to 20 points with 6:40 left.

Bradford extended his NCAA-record string of games with at least one 3-pointer to 77 with an early jumper from the top of the key as the Illini took a 13-4 lead.

Griffin, with 15 first-half points, was tough for the scrappy Flames (6-6) to contain. He scored 10 straight Illini points, including back-to-back three-point plays as the Illini opened up a 29-19 lead.

Griffin got inside again for a basket on a pass from Williams to build the lead to 12 points, but the Flames responded when Jon-Pierre Mitchom hit a pair of free throws and Jordan Kardos a jumper in the lane to make it 39-31 at the half.

Mitchom led the Flames with 19 points and Kardos had 15.

Illinois was making its first appearance at the All-State Arena - formerly the Rosemont Horizon - since 1989 and was the home team, even though UIC's campus is 15 miles from the building.