Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Playing in its first tournament without Dee Brown and James Augustine, the Illinois basketball team got the same result it’s used to – just in a different fashion.

The Illini survived a 51-49 scare from Miami (Ohio) on Friday night in the inaugural Chicago Invitational Challenge at the Sears Centre.

And Saturday night, in a battle of cross-town rivals, Illinois used a second-half rally, along with the return of sophomore guard Jamar Smith, to propel them to a 75-71 victory over Bradley (5-1).

Center Shaun Pruitt, who had 16 points (7-of-11 shooting) and nine rebounds, thinks the Illini’s perfect record in the tournament and their come-from-behind victories will boost their confidence.

“It’s our first championship together as this group and this unit, so it’s kind of stepping out of Dee and James’ shadow a little bit,” Pruitt said. “Coach (Weber) has talked to us about that. We have a lot of unproven guys on this team, a lot of new faces, we haven’t won anything; we just have to continue to work hard.”

Fueled by its 6-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc and its 8-of-9 effort from the free throw line, Bradley surged to a 29-18 advantage with 6:39 remaining in the half. Its four-guard offense gave the Illini a number of match-up problems.

“We didn’t do a great job the first half of communicating; the second half we did better,” Weber said. “But (Jamar’s return) gave us some depth with all those guards, and that’s obviously their strength and forte. They’ve got some good quickness.”

Struggling on the offensive end, Weber inserted Smith into the game with 9:36 to go in the first half. It was Smith’s first game action since spraining his left ankle in the season-opener against Austin Peay on Nov. 13. Smith wasn’t expected to return for another week or two, but Weber was assured that Smith’s high ankle sprain had healed properly.

“That was a big spark, a big lift,” Frazier said of Smith. “He came in made some big threes, knocked down some free throws and got us going a little bit.”

Senior Warren Carter led the Illini (7-0) with 17 points, to go along with eight rebounds, while sophomore guard Chester Frazier, the tournament MVP, had 10 points and a game-high 11 assists. Will Franklin led the Braves with 17 points and added eight rebounds, while Daniel Ruffin added 16 points. Jeremy Crouch scored 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range.

Trailing 50-41 with 14:34 to play, Illinois started to chip away at Bradley’s lead. After a layup by Pruitt pulled the Illini close to the Braves at 54-53, the Illini took a 58-57 lead – its first since the opening minutes of the game – off a Smith three-pointer with 5:44 to play. Illinois never looked back and extended its lead to as many as seven points.

Bradley coach Jim Les thought the combination of the crowd and Illinois’ “wanting to win so badly” sped up the Braves offensively and took away from their effectiveness in the second half.

“We stood up and punched with them,” said Les, who coached the Braves to a Sweet 16 appearance in last year’s NCAA tournament. “And they took those punches and made the plays when they needed to, so give them credit.”

STARTING SLOW

In Friday night’s game against Miami (Ohio), the Illini saw the Redhawks race to a 14-point advantage during the first half. Illinois got off to the same type of start against Bradley on Saturday, behind the Braves’ hot shooting. Frazier, though, thinks it is something Illinois needs to address.

“That’s just us, in my opinion,” Frazier said following Friday’s game. “Slow starts have got to change, though. Teams are getting up on us (by) eight, 10 points within the first five minutes. We have to change that.”

Although the Illini got behind against Bradley, Frazier thought it was a different type of start than in games past.

“I don’t think we came out slow today; their style of play, they like to push,” Frazier said. “They just jumped on top of us, and we finished off the second half a little better than they did.”

TOURNAMENT TEAM

Frazier was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after scoring 10 second half points in Saturday’s game to go along with a driving layup to give the Illini a 51-49 advantage in the closing minute of Friday’s contest.

Said Frazier about the layup: “It was a millisecond (decision); it was in the matrix. It was either do or die, so I took it and it worked out good for me.”

Frazier, though, was more pleased with the Illinois win than the MVP award. In his mind, the award should have gone to Pruitt.

“Anybody could have got the MVP (award). I think Shaun deserved it, but we all came together to get the win.”

Carter, Pruitt, and the Braves’ Crouch and Franklin were named to the All-Tournament team.

PRUITT’S STRONG SHOWING

Pruitt got the Illini going in the opening minutes of the Bradley game, scoring six points in the first seven minutes of play. A recent article Pruitt read also added extra motivation.

“I read a little article that (Bradley forward) Zach Andrews said that the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and a lot of guys were talking about it,” Pruitt said. “So I kind of took it personal, and Bradley was a big win, and I just wanted to play my hardest.”

It was late in the first half that the Illini started to rely more on their outside shot and less on Pruitt’s inside presence.

“We shoot the quick shots and didn’t let Shaun touch the ball, and that’s when they broke away from us,” Weber said. “That was disappointing and we need to stay going inside, because now it spreads the defense.”

QUOTE OF THE TOURNAMENT

“They just come at you so hard. They shot those threes and we’re like, ‘C’mon; they’ve got to miss some of these.’ They went 13-for-17 (Friday night) in the first half (against Rutgers); we could stick our guys out there (in the gym) with no one and we couldn’t do that”

– Weber on Bradley’s effective three-point shooting