Feb. 26, 2012

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Illinois 65, Iowa 54
Illinois Postgame Notes
Feb. 26, 2012 // Assembly Hall, Champaign, Ill. // Attendance: 16,322

1. With the win, Illinois snapped a six-game losing streak and extended its winning streak to seven in a row over Iowa, the longest streak in 145 all-time meetings. The Illini have now 17 of the last 21 meetings with Iowa, and Bruce Weber improved his all-time record against the Hawkeyes to 13-2.

2. Meyers Leonard matched his career-high with 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, marking his eighth double-double this season. It was his sixth game scoring 20 or more points and 11th game with 10-plus rebounds.

3. Leonard also had two blocks and passed James Griffin (56; 1982) to move into third on the Illinois all-time single-season blocks list with 57. Leonard is now behind only Derek Holcomb (86; 1979) and Mike Tisdale (59; 2010).

4. Brandon Paul, who finished with 17 points, became the 46th player in Illinois history to reach 1,000 career points with a three-pointer at the 13:03 mark in the first half. He is the second player to reach the milestone in as many games, as D.J. Richardson got his 1000th career point at Ohio State last week. He finished the game with 1,015 career points.

5. Paul shut down Iowa's Matt Gatens in the second half, holding the Hawkeyes' top scorer to just 1-of-4 shooting after the break. Gatens, who was averaging 31.5 ppg in the past two games, netted 15 points in the first half and finished with 22 points.

6. The Illini bench outscored Iowa's bench of 44-1, though the number was a bit misleading, as regular starters Meyers Leonard and Brandon Paul combined for 39 of the 44 points.

7. After falling behind 5-0 to start the game, Illinois went on a 13-0 run and never trailed the rest of the way. The Illini also earned their first double-digit win since Dec. 11 against Coppin State.

8. The Illini used their seventh different starting lineup this season, going with Tyler Griffey, Nnanna Egwu, D.J. Richardson, Joseph Bertrand and Tracy Abrams. The lineup was based on who had the best records in competitive drills in the last two days of practice.