Illinois crushes No. 1 Deacons No. 5

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Top-ranked teams might want to think twice about visiting Assembly Hall.

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Roger Powell Jr. scored 19 points, Dee Brown and Luther Head added 16 each, and No. 5 Illinois made No. 1 Wake Forest look more like a nonconference patsy in a 91-73 rout Wednesday night. The Illini led by double-digits for the last 28-plus minutes of the game, and were up by as much as 32 in the second half.

With 8:34 still to play, the "Orange Krush" student section broke into chants of "Overrated!" In the final minutes, there were chants of "We're No. 1."

The Illini have now beaten both No. 1 teams that visited Assembly Hall. They beat then-No. 1 Michigan State 57-55 in 1979 - though if it's any consolation to the Demon Deacons, the Spartans still went on to win the national championship that year.

Illinois (5-0) has now won 35 straight at home against nonconference opponents, a streak that dates to Nov. 17, 1998. The Illini are 66-3 overall at Assembly Hall since the 2000-01 season.

Wake Forest (5-1) opened the season 5-0 and climbed to No. 1 for the first time in school history. Though the Demon Deacons had impressive spurts on their way to winning the preseason NIT last weekend at Madison Square Garden, they also looked at times like a team still trying to find its rhythm, getting tested by both Providence and then-No. 18 Arizona.

But the Illini are a cut above Providence and Arizona, and the Demon Deacons were no match for them. Especially not on "Paint the Hall Orange" night, when the 16,500-seat Assembly Hall was sold out with almost all of the fans in bright orange.

The Demon Deacons were held to 39 percent shooting, and two best players were never a factor. Chris Paul, the leading vote-getter on the AP's preseason All-America team, had just 10, and Justin Gray, MVP of the preseason NIT, had 11.