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LAHAINA—Brandon Paul scored 26 points and Illinois used a hot first half to ride to an easy 94-64 win over USC Monday night at the Maui Invitational.Illinois shot just under 69 percent in the first half on its way to a 31-point lead at the break. USC pulled no closer than 18 points in the second half despite some sloppy play from Illinois, which finished with 20 turnovers.The Illini (4-0), who never trailed, also got 13 points from DJ Richardson, 11 from Tracy Abrams and 10 from Tyler Griffey.USC (2-1) was led by Eric Wise with 13 points.Illinois plays host team Chaminade on Tuesday. The Division II school knocked off Texas earlier Monday.

LAHAINA—Butler’s Rotnei Clarke hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to shock Marquette 72-71 on Monday at the start of the Maui Invitational.Clarke hit the improbable basket after the Bulldogs (2-1) drove the length of the court down two points with less than 8 seconds left.Clarke – who had missed most of his 3-point shots for the game – made the shot from the right side and was mobbed on the gym floor by his teammates after it went through.Marquette’s Andrew Thomas hit an acrobatic putback layup and made a free throw to put the Golden Eagles (2-1) up three with 30.9 seconds left. Clarke missed a 3-pointer for the tie, but Erik Fromm got an offensive rebound and made a layup with 9 seconds left. Clarke fouled Marquette’s Junior Cadougan on the next play, but Cadougan missed his second free throw to set up the winning shot.Clarke had 20 points and made just 4 of 14 3-point attempts. But the shots he hit came in big moments, including two to tie in the first half.None were bigger than the last shot in a tournament built on celebrating improbable upsets.Khyle Marshall had 24 points and nine rebounds for Butler. Vander Blue scored 21 points for the Golden Eagles.Marquette went on a quick 12-0 run after Marshall scored the opening basket for Butler. But the Bulldogs grinded their way back, making a few more baskets during a stretch in which both teams kept a frenetic pace, but neither shot particularly well.Clarke hit a 3-pointer with just under 4 minutes left in the half to tie the game at 23, and Butler went into halftime with a 31-30 lead.The teams then traded blows from the start in the second half. Cadougan hit a jumper 3 minutes in to give Marquette a one-point lead, Marshall responded with an alley-oop dunk from Jones, then Anderson shot back with a reverse layup to put the Golden Eagles back up again.Marquette maintained a small lead through the bulk of the last 10 minutes of the game.The game had three ties and four lead changes.