CHAMPAIGN, ILL. • Attempts by Illinois to stop Gonzaga center Robert Sacre in the first half Saturday boiled down to fouling the 7-footer before he could take a shot.
Coach Bruce Weber threw three defenders at Sacre, none with more than a year of college experience. Starter Meyers Leonard picked up two fouls and spent most of the half on the bench. Freshman Nnanna Egwu had three fouls in four minutes. Freshman Ibby Djimde simply tried to survive.
Having escaped with the lead, Illinois turned the tables in the second half, and Leonard outplayed his counterpart to lead the Illini to an 82-75 win over the No. 19 Zags at Assembly Hall.
Leonard scored 17 of his 21 points in the final 20 minutes while Sacre went from zero to five fouls in no time, allowing Illinois (8-0) to remain one of 17 undefeated teams in the country.
"They're getting more confidence in me, all the guys are," Leonard said. "In the second half, they started looking for me, and I kind of did my thing."
Leonard scored 12 of the Illini's final 24 points as they held off repeated surges by Gonzaga (5-1). He did so by displaying his most complete offensive array to date, scoring on a baseline fade-away, a short jumper, a putback and, of course, several dunks.
The Illini attack continued to diversify as the junior guard tandem of D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul produced 32 points. And Sam Maniscalco again contributed huge plays in the closing minutes.
It was a proving ground of sorts for a young team that has slowly seen the schedule increase in difficulty. But the undefeated start did not surprise Weber, who was asked whether he thought a month ago that the Illini could be at this point.
"Yes, I did and our staff did," he said. "I didn't know we would do it, but I thought we were capable. Brandon and Meyers could be two of the better players in the country."
Illinois never trailed after taking an 8-6 lead. That was a minor miracle after Leonard, Egwu and Tyler Griffey went to the bench with multiple fouls with eight minutes left in the first half. They eventually were joined by Paul.
Weber mixed and matched his players, using 12 before the intermission, and the Illini produced enough plays to cling to a 38-36 lead.
After abusing the Illinois big men in the first half, Sacre quickly ran into foul trouble in the second. Then he was thwacked in the head during a scramble for the ball and left for a brief time.
"They were more aggressive in the second half, and that's what happens," he said. "If you're more aggressive, you get more of the calls."
Richardson bounced back from poor shooting at Maryland to make four of seven 3-pointers and score 19 points. Paul was active with 13 points and five assists.
"I got in the gym the last couple of days and got up a lot of reps," Richardson said. "I told Brandon we had to get going one of these games together, and we both played well. Hopefully we can continue that guard play the rest of the season."
Leonard had the best half of his career, especially considering the competition. He seemed overmatched in the first half but responded to the challenge. The sophomore made nine of 11 shots and grabbed six rebounds. He is shooting 61 percent for the season.
"We knew he was a physically gifted guy,'' Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. "Rob needed to keep the ball out of there. He was guarding him after he got the ball. That was probably the biggest problem. And (Leonard) showed he's effective after he did get a catch in there."
Getting past the close of the first half helped the Illini maintain momentum. They had built the lead to eight points, but the Zags fought back for a tie at 26 as fouls mounted.
Lesser-used players such as Crandall Head, Mike Shaw, Myke Henry and Djimde fought off the Zags, never allowing them to get the lead.
"Credit the bench for coming through for us," Weber said. "They just did a lot of good things when we could have easily gone south with the foul trouble."
