COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Illini Dominates Boards in Whipping Indiana

Richard Keene, scoreless in his last game, matched a career high with 19 points and Illinois grabbed 18 offensive rebounds Sunday to beat No. 11 Indiana, 88-81, in Champaign, Ill., ending a six-game losing streak against the Hoosiers.

Indiana, with its fourth loss in five road games this season, fell to 12-4 and 5-2 in the Big Ten. Illinois, with a 39-20 overall rebounding edge, improved to 11-5 and 4-3.

Deon Thomas added 18 points for Illinois, which had five players in double figures.

Indiana’s leading scorer Damon Bailey, averaging 22.7, managed only 10 points.

The Illini expanded a five-point halftime lead to 11 by scoring the first six points of the second.

Thomas’ hook and then his dunk put Illinois up by 12 with a bit more than six minutes to go. A minute later Robert Bennett’s three-point play made it a 13-point game and the Illini held on.

No. 4 North Carolina 85, Wake Forest 61--Eric Montross scored 22 points on 10-for-13 shooting and the Tar Heels (17-3, 5-2) pounded Wake Forest’s front line in an Atlantic Coast Conference victory in Chapel Hill, N.C. Wake Forest is 12-7, 3-4.

It was textbook Tar Heel basketball. Virtually all of North Carolina’s points came from within 10 feet of the basket.

No. 9 Kentucky 91, Auburn 74--Tony Delk scored 25 points and Kentucky shot 76% from the field in the second half in Auburn, Ala., to hand Auburn (5-11, 0-8) its eighth straight loss.

Kentucky (16-3, 6-2) moved to within half a game of first-place Florida in the SEC’s Eastern Division. Rodrick Rhodes added 19 points for the Wildcats.

No. 17 Minnesota 92, St. John’s 64--Minnesota bounced back from a tough loss and a rough trip with an easy victory.

The Golden Gophers (14-6) easily handled St. John’s (8-9) in New York, just 24 hours after losing to No. 7 Purdue.

The Gophers were led by Voshon Lenard with 27 points.

No. 8 Massachusetts 76, Rhode Island 47--Marcus Camby scored 15 points and Massachusetts (16-3, 8-0) held Rhode Island (6-9, 3-5) scoreless for more than seven minutes as the Minutemen beat the Rams in an Atlantic 10 game in Amherst, Mass.

No. 20 Alabama Birmingham 60, Dayton 52--Robert Shannon scored 23 points, including five straight to thwart a Dayton (4-11, 0-3) comeback and help Alabama-Birmingham (16-2, 4-1) hold on in a Great Midwest Conference game in Dayton, Ohio.