WASHINGTON REGION: SAME RESULT FOR ILLINOIS.Byline: Ramona Shelburne Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Staff Writer SAN DIEGO San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. - It didn't take long for Illinois' players to notice just how different the road ahead of them in this year's NCAA Tournament NCAA Tournament can mean: Men's Sports
The Illini was a No. 1 seed last year and given a cozy road through the Midwest on their way to the title game. This year, No. 4 seeded Illinois opened to a nearly empty Cox Arena at San Diego State against a feisty 13th seed in Air Force. Small crowd or not, Illinois' mission is the same and it got off to a good start Thursday night with a 78-69 victory over Air Force in the first round of the Washington D.C. Regional. ``Dee (Brown) and I go back a long way, to those early morning AAU AAU abbr. Amateur Athletic Union games with no one in the stands. It kind of reminded me of that,'' senior forward James Augustine James Augustine (born February 27, 1984 in Midlothian, Illinois) is an American professional basketball player. He eventually moved to Mokena, Illinois where he attended Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox, Illinois where he graduated in 2002. said of the late-arriving crowd. ``Last year, we were so close to home. Indianapolis, Chicago and then St. Louis. We'd have thousands of people at our practices. Yesterday, we just had a select few.'' Those that came in late didn't miss much early on. Both teams started slowly. Air Force scored just 11 points in the first 11 minutes and it looked like the game would be played at a plodding pace. But in the second half, the arena filled up, and both teams started to find the range from outside. Or rather, Illinois' reserve freshman Jamar Smith did, making 5 of 6 his 3-point attempts in the half to finish with a game-high 20 points. The Falcons (24-7), who many media critics said didn't deserve an at- large bid to the tournament after they lost to Wyoming in the first round of the Mountain West Conference tournament, hit 7 of 13 3-point shots in the second half. Antoine Hood scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the second half. ``They're a tough team to play,'' Illinois' coach Bruce Weber Bruce Weber may refer to:
|
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion