Illini forced to work for victory

The juniors "have to be the guys to lead the wagon,'' Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "Let the freshmen jump on for the ride. I got on Tisdale pretty bad yesterday. He's been struggling and not getting much done. It was good for him to get going.

"Maybe last year if he missed those shots early, Davis would have gone in the tank. He's grown up a bit. Demetri made some errors, some bad decisions and then made plays then they really counted. It was good to see that those guys could carry the load.''

Supinie