No. 10 Penn State beat Illinois 63-24 Friday night, by scoring 35 points in the fourth quarter, after getting all they could handle from an Illini team showing signs of a turnaround in coach Lovie Smith's third season.
Malcolm Hill scored a career-high 39 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, but it wasn't enough to get the Illini men past Penn State, as the Nittany Lions defeated Illinois 86-79 in double-overtime Sunday in Happy Valley.
The win streak has allowed Illinois to crack the top ten in the rankings for the first time ever, including a No. 8 rankings from a USA Today Coaches poll. UI also is ranked No. 9 by D1Baseball.com, Perfect Game and Baseball America.
The Illini improve to 4-5 in Big Ten Conference play. The win comes as two key players - who had suffered injuries - were suspended indefinitely for violating team rules.
