Dominique Keller stood up for teammate Chester Frazier following Monday night’s 68-58 win against Hawaii at Assembly Hall.

The two players, team leaders with 14 points apiece, sat three feet apart at the postgame press conference when Frazier was asked if he was aware of a “role-reversal” between himself and teammate Demetri McCamey during the game.

McCamey turned in a Frazier-like passing performance with 11 assists, while Frazier posted McCamey-like numbers with four 3-pointers. At least, that’s how some saw it … just not Keller.

“(Frazier’s) a guard. He’s on the perimeter like everyone else is, so if he’s open, he’s gonna shoot,” Keller said. “If Demetri hit four threes, you wouldn’t be talking about it right now. Chester shoots just as good as anybody I saw in practice. He’s worked hard on his shot in the summertime. So I don’t see a difference (between McCamey and Frazier).

“I don’t think it’s funny when people try to come at (Chester) and give him a hard time for missing shots. If it wasn’t for Chester, we wouldn’t have won half the games we’ve played already.”

At one point, Frazier reached around the back of McCamey, who sat at the middle of the table, to grab the hand of Keller. McCamey called for a break to regain his composure after the exchange – he couldn’t keep a straight face during Keller’s blunt comments.

“Commercial break,” McCamey said. “I need a TV timeout.”

McCamey’s weren’t the only laughs in this contest. Illinois (8-1) upended Hawaii (3-3) despite recording an all-time low in rebounds (14), in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score would suggest.

“We can do some box out drills. We got to watch the tape and see about block outs,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. “One of the things that happened today was we pressured so much and our guys thought every time we’re going to get a steal.

“The big guys got to box out and get a hand on it, but the guards got to go get it.”

Illinois led by as many as 15 in the first half and opened up a 20-point advantage with 6:11 left in the second half on a Calvin Brock dunk. Hawaii stayed in the game, in part because of a 43-14 rebounding advantage and 21 second-chance points.

As Frazier put it: “We got punked.”

The Rainbow Warriors were led in scoring by 6-foot-8 forward Petras Balocka, who finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Frazier and Balocka ruled the first half. Balocka had 10 points and six rebounds before the 11-minute mark in the opening period and Frazier piled on four 3-pointers. Illinois ended the half outscoring Hawaii 26-11, aided by 3-pointers from Trent Meacham and Frazier. Hawaii was careless with the ball and committed 12 more turnovers – 14 to 2 – than Illinois in the half. Illinois only committed three more turnovers the rest of the game and finished with five.

McCamey said he didn’t care if his stat line looked like a conventional Frazier log, instead pointing to the only stat he cares about.

“We won, that’s all that mattered to me,” McCamey said. “I didn’t hit a couple shots so I got my teammates involved.”