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Illinois European trip
Game 2 recap
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[AUG. 13, 2003]
SODERTALJE,
Sweden -- The early hot shooting of Dee Brown and strong inside play
of Jack Ingram keyed a 95-85 Illinois win over the Sodertalje Kings
Tuesday night. Brown began the night hitting four of his first five
3-point attempts, including his first three attempts, on the way to
17 first-half points. Ingram made seven of 10 shots and grabbed a
game-high 12 rebounds to go along with 19 points in his best effort
as an Illini.
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"We made a little bit of a streak of
defensive stops at the end of the first quarter and beginning of the
second to extend our lead," head coach Bruce Weber said. "I was
disappointed we were never able to finish them off after building a
nice lead in the third quarter. Some of it was conditioning, but it
was mostly defense. In the two games, it's been all or nothing --
either the defense has been really good or really bad."
"Dee had a nice run to get others
involved after he got off to a great start. Deron Williams played
very well and did some nice things and hit some big shots. Jack had
a breakout game, especially on the offensive boards. In the first
half, we counted eight transition baskets and seven scores off
offensive rebounds, so those two areas were key tonight."
The Illini led just 30-28 after the
first quarter but increased the lead to 53-44 at halftime. Illinois
dominated the boards by a 26-13 count in the first half before
finishing with a 47-33 advantage for the game. The Illini pushed the
lead to 14 points at the end of the third quarter and nursed a
10-point victory home.
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this article]
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"We played hard tonight," Ingram said.
"We tried to take advantage of our size. The motion offense leads to
good offensive rebounding opportunities, and I tried to crash the
boards. Defensively, we can improve a lot. It seems like during the
summer we have relaxed on some of our defensive principles, and it
takes some time to get them back."
Seven of Ingram's 12 boards were on the
offensive end. Roger Powell added 17 points and six rebounds while
making eight of 12 shots. Deron Williams made seven of 12 shots for
16 points, while James Augustine added 11 points and eight rebounds.
"We played better than last night but
not anywhere near where we need to be," Williams said. "Jack was
great tonight, especially with his offensive rebounding, which was
something we really missed last season."
The Sodertalje Kings are in the top
division of Sweden's basketball leagues and have made the playoffs
each of the last four years.
Click here for
box score.
[Click
here to download the Adobe Acrobat reader.]
Illinois
travels to Helsinki on Wednesday and will next play Thursday, Aug.
14, in Kotka, Finland.
[News release]
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