Waukegan (7-0) 65, Rock Island (5-3) 55

STAR OF THE GAME

JEREME RICHMOND, Waukegan

Had Colin Nickerson played a minute in the third quarter, it might have been him. But Richmond, an Illinois recruit, stole the show. The 6 foot 7 forward scored a team-high 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. He ignited the crowd with a pair of dunks, one a two-handed tip in and another soaring one-hander in traffic.

BY THE NUMBERS

Nickerson had 14 points near the end of the second quarter, but picked up a personal foul and a technical on the same play, sending him to the bench for the next 10 minutes with four fouls. He finished with 16 points and seven steals ... Of Waukegan's 35 rebounds, 16 were on the offensive glass ... Rock Island's Chasson Randle, an Illinois target, had a game-high 22 points ... Rock Island's Brandon Pullman scored 21 and pulled down 12 rebounds ... The rest of the Rocks combined to score 12 points, with five coming from Royce Muskeyvalley ... Waukegan shot 57 percent (12 for 21) in the second half.

WHAT WAS SAID

– Illinois recruit Jereme Richmond on the new season: "Last year was kind of a different feeling for me, but over the summer we all focused on coming back this year, stronger, better than last year so we're focusing more on being a team, focusing on the team concept and trusting my coaches more so it's a lot more fun and obviously people can tell from my attitude on the court."

– Richmond on coming to Illinois: "I think I've got maybe a year and five months if I'm not mistaken, so I'm really looking forward to getting down here in a couple years to see what we can do."

– Rock Island's Chasson Randle, who has a scholarship offer from Illinois, on playing in Champaign: "It was amazing, I loved it here. I got the feel for Assembly Hall and the fans and stuff like that so it was great."

– Waukegan coach Ron Ashlaw on Nickerson, a Fairfield signee, picking up his fourth foul in the second quarter: "That obviously threw a wrench in our plans a little bit. Colin's a guy we count on to play heavy minutes and do a lot of things defensively and offensively and at this point of the year we're searching for depth and it's happened a little quicker than we'd like, but we had some young guys step up today and play really well."