Dec. 28, 2005

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - Only 2 seconds remained before halftime and Illinois had already seen a 15-point lead shrink to three. Dee Brown grabbed the inbounds pass and raced to midcourt where he let fly from about 40 feet away.

"I just threw it up and prayed for it to go in, and it went in," Brown said after the sixth-ranked Illini beat Southeast Missouri State 89-64 Wednesday night. "It was big momentum for us going into halftime."

The basket extended Illinois lead to 38-29, the Illini came out of the locker room energized and went on to their 13th straight victory to start the season.

Brown scored 16 points and made two diving saves that led directly to baskets. Early in the game, he dove into the defensive corner and scooped the ball back to Warren Carter who got it back to Brown. Brown then sent a pass to Jamar Smith, who hit a 3-pointer.

In the second half, Brown dove over the midcourt line and into the courtside seats to save a ball. He got it to Smith who found Rich McBride for another 3 that gave the Illini a 16-point lead.

"Dee Brown's not very quick. He needs to get quicker," Redhawks coach Gary Garner joked after the game.

Southeast Missouri (4-7) fought off an 0-for-6 start and trimmed a 20-5 Illini lead to 27-24 when Ketschner Guerrier hit a jumper with 11:42 to go in the first half.

But Smith's 3-pointer stopped the outburst and the Illini stretched their lead when Brown scored the final five points of the half, the last three on the buzzer-beater. He hit another 3-pointer with 17:27 left in the game that started a 13-2 Illinois run.

"I think every team comes out and just gives it their all and plays good team basketball, and we've got to be focused every game and come out with intensity," Brown said.

"When other teams go on a run and get the momentum, how do we respond? Do we just lay down and let them outplay us or do we raise our intensity? I think in the second half we raised our intensity."

Smith and Carter scored 14 points each off the bench, and James Augustine added 12 and eight rebounds for Illinois. Smith was 4-for-4 from 3-point range and Carter grabbed seven rebounds to help the Illini to a 48-24 edge on the boards.

Brown's 16 points moved him past Andy Kaufman into seventh on Illinois' career scoring list with 1,536 points.

"I've told these guys, we're a good team. We don't have great players like we did last year," coach Bruce Weber said. "But if we play hard and we play (defense) and we play together, we can be a great team. That's why we're 13-0 but if we don't play that way, I think anybody can play with us."

Southeast Missouri missed 11 of its first 13 shots, but rolled off 11 straight points, seven from Roy Booker, to start the 19-7 run.

Booker finished with a game-high 26 points. Andrais Thornton and Eric Burtin scored 10 points each.