by Kristen Leigh Porter and Daniel Ripes
Senior writers

After Illinois’ 71-35 romp against Tennessee-Martin (1-3) yesterday, in front of 10,496 at the Assembly Hall, Illinois reserve Bryan Campbell may have been the only one a little unhappy. He was the only Illini player not to score.

The Illini (3-2) welcomed the Skyhawks, who are only two years into Division I basketball, with a stifling defensive effort holding them to only 13 field goals in the game and forcing 24 turnovers. Illinois had three players in double figures. It was just the opposite for UTM as only six players managed to break onto the scoreboard.

The last time the Illini held an opponent to 35 or less points was in the 1985-86 season when Illinois defeated Wisconsin-Green Bay, 84-34. Also, the 35 points scored by UTM is the second lowest total in Assembly Hall history. UI held UTM to 25 percent shooting from the field, which is the lowest field goal percentage in Assembly Hall history by an opponent.

"The final margin is different than the first four games, but that’s not the critical thing right now," Illinois head coach Lon Kruger said of the blowout.

The Skyhawks flew out of the locker room in a hurry led by their seniors. Forward Joe Crumby scored five and center Ryan McDonald added three in the first 4 1/2 minutes to give UTM an 8-2 lead to open the game.

"We need more enthusiasm to start the game," Cleotis Brown said. "We didn’t start off well. We talked about that in the locker room."

Illinois followed quickly. Cory Bradford hit two three-pointers and Arias Davis came off the bench to nail one. Bradford, who had 11 on the night, should have continued shooting from behind the arc as his only two baskets from the half came from three-point range (2-of-8). With 7:02 left in the half, Brown came back into the action after picking up two early fouls. He proceeded to score the next seven points overall to extend the Illini advantage to 12 as they led 24-12.

"We want Cleotis to be aggressive. He didn’t do it against St. Louis, but did a better job of it tonight," Kruger said. "Now he needs to get back-to-back games together."

Shortly after, Crumby nailed a three pointer with 2:02 to end the Illini 22-4 run. After Bradford stepped out of bounds with the closing seconds ticking down, Crumby hustled down the court to nail a three at the buzzer to cut the score to 26-21 heading into the second half. Illinois held Tennessee-Martin leading scorer Sean Griffin to just three first half points. However, Crumby picked up the slack, adding 13 in the half. Neither team held a shooting clinic as UI shot nine-of-31 from the field (.290), while UTM went eight-of-27 from the floor (.296) including 3-for-13 from three-point range.

The Illini dominated the second half, only yielding 14 points defensively. Illinois also found more of an offensive touch as they almost doubled their first half output with 45 second-half points on 20-of-35 shooting (.571). Illinois opened the half with a 20-4 run, and ended it on an 11-0 burst.

"Illinois is big, strong, aggressive, very good defensively,&q