Thoughts of Hawaii’s sunny skies, sandy beaches and Tuesday’s 8 ½-hour plane ride weren’t enough to derail the Illini men’s basketball team’s focus on Monday.

Aside from a five-minute scoring drought late in the game, everything clicked for the Illini as they earned their second win of the season in an 89-64 rout over St. Francis (N.Y.).

“I want to acknowledge our seniors and our captains. They did a phenomenal job of having our guys ready to play,” Illinois head coach John Groce said. “I got asked that question a lot over the last two to three days with Hawaii looming. These guys from a mental standpoint practiced really well the last two days.”

The Illini rode that preparation to its second-straight impressive win to open up the season. For those keeping score at home, former Illini basketball coach Bruce Weber had one game last season with a 40-point first half. Two games into his new job in Champaign, Groce is a perfect 2-for-2.

And for more than a minute, it seemed like 100 points could even be in the cards, another feat that doesn’t often seem palpable for Illini hoops teams. Following a 15-0 run in the final seven minutes of the first half, the Illini stormed into the second half, scoring 19 points in the first five minutes to open up a commanding 72-37 lead. With 15 minutes left, it looked like the Illini might reach the century mark for the first time since dropping 105 against Longwood on Dec. 27, 2004, but a for-naught St. Francis run put an end to any wishful thinking. That didn’t stop four Illini players — Tyler Griffey, Tracy Abrams, Brandon Paul and Nnanna Egwu — from scoring double digits and 10 players from tallying at least three points.

Griffey in particular had a standout performance, draining 17 points, one point shy of his career-high, on 7-for-10 attempts from the field and 3-for-4 from behind the arc.

He also added five rebounds, two blocks and beat his man off the dribble to create his own shot with regularity, all the while St. Francis head coach Glenn Braica was screaming to his players from the bench that Griffey could only pick and pop.

“He played like he practiced. I was teasing him the other day,” Groce said. “I saw him miss one in five-on-five drills, and I said: ‘That’s the first time I’ve seen you miss in like 10 days. He’s taking what the defense is giving him, and Tyler has tremendous IQ for the game.’”

However miniscule a game one might view a blowout win over a Northeastern Conference team, it’s clear there was evolution. A 17-8 turnover ratio as a team, and a 10-4 ratio among primary ball-handlers Abrams and Paul, is a drastic improvement over 14-12 ratio the Illini had against Colgate and the 7-21 ratio they tallied in their second exhibition game against West Chester.

With 13:30 left in the second frame of Monday’s Illini men’s basketball game, head coach John Groce motioned to Mike LaTulip. The preferred walk-on took off his warm-up and headed to the scorers table to check in.

Within mere seconds of his entrance into the game, Latulip hit a three to extend the Illini’s torrid shooting streak, which culminated in a 49.2 field goal percentage on 65 shots.

Groce said he was nervous his team would come out flat with the tropical road trip ahead. He can now breathe a sigh of relief

Just like any other man headed to Hawaii, he can finally relax.

Ethan can be reached at [email protected] and @asofthesky.