During Tuesday’s practice, Brandon Paul made it clear he and his recruiting class had never lost a game in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, and they didn’t intend to start against Georgia Tech on Wednesday.

Down four points to the Yellow Jackets with 10 minutes left in the game, junior Joseph Bertrand backed up Paul’s pregame talk. After a sloppy first half mired by turnovers and lackluster interior defense, Paul, Bertrand and senior guard D.J. Richardson scored 37 of the Illini’s 39 second-half points to propel the Illini to a 75-62 win, move to 8-0 on the season and win their fourth straight ACC/Big Ten Challenge game.

“Once again, I’ve said numerous times, I’m the luckiest guy in the world because I’ve got some older guys that really care about the game, they care about the team, they care about Illinois,” head coach John Groce said. “They want to be really good. They work at it. They let our staff coach them.”

Once again, Bertrand provided a spark off the bench, serving as the team’s energizer when it needed it most. After just three first-half points, from the 6:26 mark in the second half to 5:25, Bertrand went on a solo 10-0 run. His back-to-back threes with just over five minutes remaining in the game sent Assembly Hall into a frenzy, as the Illini regained the lead 59-58 and started their final run to put the game out of reach.

But Bertrand would come back for an encore, and perhaps should go looking for a patent for his acrobatic follow-up to his display from distance. His aerial up-and-under — and back up again — broke the game open and sent the junior’s name trending nationally on Twitter. He finished the game with 15 points, tied for the game’s leading scorer with Paul.

“He had that loopy-dee-loop ridiculous shot that you’ll probably see on SportsCenter tonight,” Paul said. “Me and Tyler (Griffey) just laughed because we see that stuff in practice everyday.”

The Illini finished the first half leading 36-35, but they played one of their sloppier first halves of the season, turning the ball over 12 times — though just two in the second half — allowing Georgia Tech to dominate them in the post. Illinois scored just four points in the paint and only managed one free throw the entire half but stuck with the Yellow Jackets, never allowing them to open up more than a six-point lead.

To adjust to Georgia Tech’s bigger, more physical lineup, the Illini switched to a zone in the second half, which helped Illinois force nine second-half turnovers, which allowed the seniors to run the floor in transition and get more open looks than in the half court.

And while most areas improved for the Illini in the second half, the Illini were just 7-for-18 from the charity stripe. Sam McClaurin, Nnanna Egwu and Paul each missed two straight free throws on shooting fouls during crucial moments in the game. Paul finished the game 3-for-9 from the line.

“I’m a better free-throw shooter than that,” Paul said. “I know it. My teammates know it. I got to make sure that when I’m on the line, I’m focused.”

But once again, senior toughness led the Illini through a tightly contested game. In addition to Paul and Bertrand’s performances, Griffey scored 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting, and D.J. Richardson, who ran into early foul trouble and had to sit at length in the first half, finished with the same number. The class of 2009 Illini were a combined 12-for-21 from behind the arc, scoring the majority of the team’s 14 3-pointers during the game. The mark is one removed from the most a team has ever made in Assembly Hall, and two removed from the single-game team record of 16 set in 2005 during the Illini’s Elite Eight win over Arizona.

Groce is now the first Illini coach to win his first ACC/Big Ten Challenge game, as Lon Kruger, Bill Self and Bruce Weber all failed at the feat. Perhaps more importantly, Illinois is off to a similar start as last season, when the Illini began the year 10-0 before falling to UNLV on Dec. 17 and tail-spun out of Big Ten contention.

But this year seems different. After Bertrand’s first three in that minute-long stretch when the Illini took the lead and pulled away, Groce pumped his arms in the air to get the crowd excited. The seniors now expect to win, and Groce is content to ride them.

Ethan can be reached at [email protected].