CHAMPAIGN -- There is a new breed of basketball player muscling its way onto the Illini roster.

Young. Athletic. Brimming with confidence. And unwilling to wait for its chance.

Freshman Brandon Paul used the season opener Friday night to show he’s that type of player, setting a school scoring record for points in a freshman debut with 22 as Illinois rolled past Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville 96-69 at the Assembly Hall.

Fellow freshman starter D.J. Richardson added 14 points as Illinois turned in an impressive season-opening performance.

“I’m definitely excited about the game and how we played with high energy,” said Illini coach Bruce Weber, who is often his team’s harshest critic. “That was the thing we talked about before the game. Against Quincy (in an exhibition game last Sunday), no energy, no excitement. We went through the motions.

“Today, the whole thing was energy, excitement and get off to a good start early. We did all of those things and got the crowd into it.”

Illinois came out flying, hit its first six shots and jumped to a 14-2 lead that included eight points by the 6-foot-4 Paul, who made a strong case that he deserves Weber’s faith to join Richardson in the starting lineup.

“Yeah, that’s definitely a motivation for a lot of us because we all want to start,” Paul said. “That’s something I want to continue to do.

“I had some butterflies, but after the first couple of plays, I just went after it.”

Paul also drew the defensive assignment on SIU-E sophomore Mark Yelovich of Mount Zion , the team’s top returning scorer. Yelovich never really got untracked. He finished with five points – all from the free throw line – and was hampered by four personal fouls.

“We tried to get Yelovich going,” SIU-E coach Lennox Forrester said. “But he picked up two fouls, then picked up another one (in the first half). We need him to have good numbers for us to have a chance.”

Illinois’ lead grew to 41-14 when Demetri McCamey (11 points, 7 assists) hit a pair of free throws with 3:53 left in the first half. And the second-half lead reached a high of 37 points at 78-41.

Richardson was questionable before the game after hyper-extending his right elbow in practice on Thursday. When the coaches saw him do a windmill dunk during warm-ups, they knew he could play.

But Richardson said he adjusted his game, attempting just five shots. He got to the free throw line 10 times and had four assists with no turnovers in 20 minutes.

Mike Davis had the 10th double-double of his career with 10 points and 10 rebounds

Forrester said he hoped the game would be a learning experience for his SIU-E team that just last season made the transition from Division II to Division I.

“We learned that Illinois is pretty good,” he said. “(Paul and Richardson) don’t play like freshmen, especially D.J. He’s really good. He comes in and acts like he’s a senior. We had our best defender on him tonight just to slow him down.

“They’re so good in transition. Even when we made shots, McCamey was right down our throat again and they had some easy baskets with that. Their tempo and athleticism was very impressive. And it was incredible how well they shot the ball.”

Illinois shot 55.4 percent and returns to action Tuesday night against Northern Illinois.

SIU-E settled down and played much better in the second half. Denykco Bowles, Aamir McCleary and Stephen Jones each finished with 13 points for the Cougars.

With Richardson and Paul in the starting lineup, it marked the first time that Weber has started more than one true freshman in a season opener. The only other freshman to start in an opener for Weber was Brian Randle on Nov. 22, 2003 vs. Western Illinois.

The last time more than one freshman started in an Illini opener was Nov. 24, 2002 when Dee Brown, Deron Williams and James Augustine made their collegiate debuts in a 90-56 victory over Lehigh.

mtupper@herald-review.com|421-7983

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