STONY BROOK—Illinois felt the sting of being left out of the NCAA tournament.Then, the Fighting Illini were forced to hit the road to start the NIT despite being a top seed in their bracket because Cirque du Soleil was playing at Assembly Hall.Despite all that, Illinois still was able to beat eighth-seeded Stony Brook 76-66 in front of a loud sellout crowd of 4,423 at Stony Brook Arena on Wednesday night.Mike Davis led Illinois (20-14) with 17 points, and Demetri McCamey barely missed a triple-double with 16 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. D.J. Richardson also contributed 16 points and Mike Tisdale added 15 for the Fighting Illini, who had been knocked out in the Big Ten semifinals.Next up in the second round is fourth-seeded Kent State on Monday at Assembly Hall. Illinois is two victories away from the NIT’s version of the Final Four at Madison Square Garden.Bryan Dougher made five 3-pointers on the way to a 21-point effort for the Seawolves (22-10). The America East regular-season champs were playing the first postseason game in their 11-year Division I tenure.It was the first time the Seawolves had hosted a Big Ten team, and it was only their third home game against a BCS conference team. It was also their first game on national television.Stony Brook Arena, which has been scheduled for renovation, was used to accommodate more fans. The team had played its home games in the same complex, but at Pritchard Gymnasium, which holds 1,680 fans. But the bigger arena was rocking for this game.After McCamey hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to give the Fighting Illini a 38-36 lead, the All-Big Ten first-team guard drilled another 3 to start the second half and launch a 10-2 run. Tisdale and Richardson also made 3s in the burst, helping Illinois open a 48-38 advantage.The Seawolves cut it to 48-43 and later trimmed a 12-point deficit to 59-54 with seven minutes left, but they never got closer than that five-point margin.Illinois, which had fallen behind 7-0 at the start of the game, went 8 of 8 from the line in the final minute to clinch it.Stony Brook got hurt by the Fighting Illini on the boards, getting outrebounded 38-25.

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KINGSTON—Akeem Richmond scored 14 of his 16 points during a big first-half run as Rhode Island defeated Northwestern 76-64 on Wednesday night in an NIT opener.The Rams (24-9) will play host to a second-round game against Nevada, which beat Wichita State.Rhode Island lost a bid to the NCAA tournament by losing six of its previous 10 games, and was determined to end its season on a winning note. Juice Thompson led the Wildcats (20-14) with 24 points, while Northwestern’s leading scorer, John Shurna, was held to 15 — 3.3 below his season average.Northwestern led 22-20 when Richmond scored 14 consecutive points for Rhode Island in a span of 3:07 which helped give the Rams a 34-28 lead. Richmond connected on all four of his 3-pointers during the run.Rhode Island’s Orion Outerbridge converted a three-point play with 1:04 left in the half to give the Rams a 37-30 lead at intermission.Richmond acknowledged that he relished the chance to play against a zone — Northwestern alternated between a 1-3-1 and a matchup — instead of man-to-man defense.Shurna averaged 18.3 points and shot 46.4 percent before the NIT, but coach Jim Baron alternated five players on him within the context of his team’s man-to-man defense. The closest NU could get in the second half was 41-39, but Rhode Island went on an 8-0 run to break the game open.

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DAYTON—Chris Johnson scored 13 points and Dayton used a 19-1 second-half run to pull away and beat Illinois State 63-42 in the opening round of the NIT on Wednesday night.Chris Wright grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Dayton (21-12) to a 42-27 advantage on the boards. The Flyers will play at Cincinnati in the second round.Dayton was coming off a conference tournament loss to Xavier that was typical of many of its losses this season. The Flyers squandered a 15-point lead in the second half, but this time the formula of a deep bench, relentless man-to-man defense and rebounding worked. The Flyers held the Redbirds to 33.3 percent shooting. Osiris Eldridge, the Missouri Valley Conference’s leading scorer, shot only 4 for 15 but led the Redbirds (22-11) with 12 points. Dayton saw its 13-point lead cut to 42-37 with 10:27 to play, but Johnson started the Flyers’ huge run with a 3-pointer. Four minutes later, Marcus Johnson hit a 3-pointer and a pull-up jumper on back-to-back trips to put the Flyers up 54-38 with 6:07 left. Dayton scored the next seven points before Eldridge hit a 3-pointer to end a nearly eight minute field-goal drought for Illinois State.