12.00 Northwestern 68, No. 22 Illinois 54: Reggie Hearn scored 20 points and the visiting Wildcats upended the struggling Fighting Illini in Big Ten play.

Jared Swopshire and Alex Marcotullio each added 12 points and Dave Sobolewski chipped in 10 as Northwestern (11-7, 2-3 Big Ten) led the entire contest while handing Illinois its third straight loss and fifth in seventh games.

Brandon Paul tallied 21 points and Tracy Abrams added 10 for the Fighting Illini (14-5, 1-4), who shot just 38.8 percent from the field and 3-of-20 from 3-point range.

Northwestern led by four points seven minutes into the game and used a 10-1 run to take a 25-12 lead on a layup by Tre Demps with 8:08 left in the half. The Wildcats led by as many as 17 en route to a 36-21 halftime lead.

A 3-pointer by Hearn gave Northwestern a 48-32 lead with 8:46 remaining. Illinois cut the deficit to nine with 3:41 left before the Wildcats pushed the lead back to 16 in the final minute.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Northwestern has won back-to-back games at Illinois to improve to 6-39 at Assembly Hall. … Paul has scored in double digits in 18 of Illinois’ 19 games. … The Wildcats have won four of their last five Big Ten road games dating to last season.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}