CHAMPAIGN—Illinois found itself on Saturday in the same place it was a week ago: down in the second half to the kind of team Big Ten schools schedule with comfortable wins in mind.And for the second straight week, they looked to quarterback Wes Lunt to bail them out.Lunt, with a big hand from safety Taylor Barton, delivered, turning what would have been an embarrassing loss into a 42-34 win over Western Kentucky. A week earlier Illinois (2-0) had to come from behind to beat Football Championship Subdivision school Youngstown State.

”I asked them in the locker room, `Please don’t do that anymore. I’m getting old, my heart is getting bad,”’ Illinois coach Tim Beckman said. ”We’re not where we want to be by any means, but it was good to see and I was glad for our kids.”

The Hilltoppers (1-1) believed they let a potential win slip through their fingers. They led 17-7 in the second quarter and 24-21 in the third.

”We thought momentum completely swung our way. We feel like this one did get away from us,” said linebacker Nick Holt, who led Western Kentucky with 12 tackles. ”We’ve got to finish in the fourth quarter.”

The undefeated start for Illinois looks good in the standings, and Lunt had a big day with three touchdowns and 456 yards on 35-50 passing.But a week after Youngstown State, the Illini again tip-toed toward disaster.The Hilltoppers opened up that 17-7 lead while Illinois’ offense sputtered.A 95-yard fumble return by Western Kentucky cornerback Wonderful Terry.On the other hand, after failing to create a turnover in two-plus games dating to last season the Illini enjoyed three Saturday. The biggest was Barton’s fourth-quarter interception.The Illini were up 28-27 with less than 11 minutes to play. Western Kentucky had the ball at the Illinois 30-yard line and was moving with ease.Hilltoppers quarterback Brandon Doughty looked over the middle and threw deep for a receiver, apparently never seeing Barton waiting between him and his target.Barton pulled down the pick, cut left and was quickly past the last defender for a 77-yard touchdown return and a 35-27 lead.

”I’m just reading the quarterback at that point,” Barton said. ”When I caught it and looked up, I saw there was a crease and I just tried to hit the crease. After that, I just ran as fast as I could.”

The Illini hadn’t returned an interception for a touchdown since September 2012, early in coach Tim Beckman’s first season in Champaign.

”Those are the things that hurt us last year,” Western Kentucky coach Jeff Brohm said. ”When you talk about turnovers, especially for touchdowns.”

Illinois was also 9-13 on third-down conversions, a frustration noted by Brohm and Holt.After throwing for more than 500 yards against Bowling Green a week earlier, Doughty grabbed the headlines coming into the game. But running back Leon Allen was the hammer Western Kentucky used to pound down the Illini early Saturday.Allen was the big reason the Hilltoppers were able to turn a defensive stand late in the first quarter into a 99-yard touchdown drive that silenced a sparse Memorial Stadium crowd, stunned Illinois and gave Western Kentucky its first lead.After holding Illinois four times inside its own 6-yard line, including the stop on fourth down at the goal line that gave them the ball, the Hilltoppers started pushing their way up field.Allen carried the ball nine times for 36 yards and caught two passes during the 18-play, 5:58 drive. His last carry was the 1-yard touchdown run that, with the extra point, gave Western Kentucky a 10-7 edge.He finished with 24 carries, 118 yards and the touchdown. But he carried the ball just five times for six yards in the second half.

”They ran the ball a little bit more than they had shown on film but once we showed it to the kids, they understood exactly how they were getting attacked,” Illinois defensive coordinator Tim Banks said.

Doughty was 28 of 48 for 297 yards, two touchdowns and the interception.Illinois wide receiver Justin Hardee caught six balls for 110 yards and one touchdown.The Illini travel to Washington next Saturday for their first road game of the season and first game against a major-conference team. Western Kentucky heads to Middle Tennessee.

SEVILLE—Another slow start and another big win for Team USA. This seems to be the pattern for USA Basketball, although this time it looked like the slow start was from rotation and experimentation as much as it had to do with just not being energized to start the game. Mike Krzyzewski went to Derrick Rose, Rudy Gay, Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan, and DeMarcus Cousins early in the game, throwing them all out there together in the first quarter. It allowed that lineup to get extended minutes with each other, something they’ll have to work on for elimination rounds and eventually if they need to play against Spain as a unit.Coach K has been pretty generous with trying different lineups and combinations in this game, and made sure he found some combination of players to eventually pull ahead of Ukraine. After taking a 2-0 lead on free throws from Kyrie Irving, the USA wouldn’t lead again until Stephen Curry hit a 3-pointer with 4:01 left in the second quarter to give USA a three-point lead. Ukraine led after the first quarter and either led or was tied for a good chunk of the second quarter.Eventually, the defense and energy showed up, they forced empty possessions for Ukraine, and the talent won out. Team USA went on a 19-5 run to close the first half and lead by 12. The Ukraine played a virtually even third quarter with the US before succumbing to the inevitable in the fourth.There was also a bit of a scary moment late in the game when Irving hit the floor hard and walked off the court to the locker room.
Three stars:   1. Stephen Curry gets rolling from deep. Curry had been struggling with his shot in the first four games of the tournament. He entered the fifth game making just 35.3 percent of his field goals and 36.3 percent of his 3-pointers. That’s not very Curry-like on a basketball court. All of that changed against Ukraine with Curry scoring 14 points on six shots in 19 minutes of action. He hit 3-of-4 from downtown and went 5-of-5 from the free throw line (he hasn’t missed yet in the tournament). Team USA will need Curry to help stretch the floor and be that trailing threat in transition. Seeing him getting hot or progressing back up to his own historical mean is a great sign. 2. James Harden hunted for less contact and was more effective. Harden is a hunter now. He’s always been a player that draws a lot of contact and gets to the free throw line, but since he joined the Houston Rockets, it almost seems like he’d rather get contact and draw a foul than get the quick score. There’s a value to it because it gets the defense in foul trouble when it works, but it also can ruin the tempo and pace of your team’s game if it’s not going smoothly. Harden appeared to hunt for less contact against Ukraine and he seemed to have a more evident impact. He had 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and attempted just five free throws in 24 minutes. Harden also forced a couple of turnovers and dished out five assists.  3. Klay Thompson had a phenomenal showing off the bench. The game and energy started to turn around with Thompson checking into the game early on. His on-ball defense was superb and he moved the ball really well. You won’t see an incredible stat line in his box score, but his seven points, five rebounds, and four assists in 23 minutes felt pretty important. He’s mostly there to stretch the floor, so if you can get him making the extra pass and setting teammates up on that end of the floor, it opens up the possibilities for this offense to expand even more. That’s a scary/fun thought.

NOTES—Team USA faces Mexico on Saturday in Barcellona. Mexico went 2-3 in Group D play and finished as the fourth team in the group.

KANSAS CITY over Tennessee
New England over MIAMI
NY JETS over Oakland
PITTSBURGH over Cleveland
CINCINNATI over BALTIMORE
ATLANTA over New Orleans
San Francisco over DALLAS
Carolina over TAMPA BAY
PHILADELPHIA over Jacksonville
HOUSTON over Washington
DENVER over Indianapolis(Sun Nite)
ARIZONA over San Diego(Mon Nite)
NFC NORTH GAMES
———————–
SEATTLE over Green Bay(Thur Nite)
ST.LOUIS over Minnesota
DETROIT over NY Giants(Mon Nite)
BEARS over Buffalo

HOME TEAMS IN ALL CAPS

SEVILLE—Team USA started slowly yet again, but coasted to a 106-71 victory over the Dominican Republic in the FIBA World Cup on Wednesday. It was only a 25-22 lead after one quarter, but Team USA did what it had to do later on to create the sort of separation everyone expected. The win means they’ve clinched first place in Group C.Considering that the Dominican Republic sat Francisco Garcia to rest his sore ankle before facing Turkey on Thursday, Team USA could really have won by more. In an exhibition game a couple of weeks ago, Team USA beat this team by 43 points.Kenneth Faried finished with a game-high 16 points and six rebounds, and Anthony Davis had 10 points, seven rebounds and five blocks. Team USA’s starters, particularly the frontcourt, have been unstoppable so far in the tournament. Guard Victor Liz led the Dominican Republic with 15 points.There are some areas of concern here, despite the steady stream of blowout victories. Team USA has been consistently sloppy early in games, and they’re going to need to clean things up for when the competition gets stiffer. The final score obscured some silly offensive miscues and poor defensive decisions. Team USA deserves credit for upping its intensity later on — they went on a 22-0 run! — but it’s fair to want to see them play a full 40 minutes that way. They’ll need that against Spain.Derrick Rose still hasn’t had that breakout game. He didn’t look bad in this one, but we’re all waiting for him to assert himself more. In 13 minutes, he had six points and three assists. There was a lot of talk during training camp about him slowing down and picking his spots. So far that’s manifested in some nice passes, but that’s about it.
Three stars:  1. I’m getting a little tired of praising Kenneth Faried, but he deserves it. Faried shot 8-for-11, bringing his total to 29-for-36 in the World Cup. How crazy is that? Most of his offense comes off putbacks or in transition, but he also had a nice spin move in the post. That’s the sort of stuff he was showing in Denver toward the end of last season.
2. DeMarcus Cousins is giving his all. Yeah, he’s making mistakes on defense, but he’s been active and as aggressive as possible. Cousins had 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and six steals in just 12 minutes. He made all five of his field goal attempts.
3. DeMar DeRozan may be earning himself some more playing time. He entered the game in the first quarter and ended up with 11 points (on 5-for-8 shooting), two rebounds, two assists and three steals. DeRozan showed patience and an ability to pick his spots on offense, though he did turn the ball over five times.

SEVILLE—Coming off a slight scare against Turkey (about as big a scare as you can imagine a 21-point victory would be), Team USA got off to a fast start in its third game of group play Tuesday at the 2014 FIBA World Cup and mostly coasted to a 98-71 victory over New Zealand.After a lackluster first half effort against the Turks on Sunday, coach Mike Krzyzewski’s squad came out focused against the Kiwis, building a 22-point halftime lead that allowed them to pretty much cruise the rest of the way. Anthony Davis led the Americans with 21 points, nine rebounds, two steals and one block while Kenneth Faried followed up with 15 points, 11 rebounds, one steal and one block.It’s ironic that Team USA’s biggest concern coming into the tournament was the frontcourt but so far, Davis and Faried have looked like the Americans’ two best players. However, USA Basketball’s guards also regrouped from underwhelming performances against Turkey to help blow New Zealand out early.James Harden led the guards with 13 points, four assists and two steals, while Stephen Curry finally had a good outing with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting to go with five rebounds and three assists. Klay Thompson had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting off the bench and Kyrie Irving added 10 points, four rebounds and four steals. The Kiwis were led by 11 points from B.J. Anthony.Derrick Rose once again struggled from the floor, going 1-for-6 from the field, but he didn’t look physically worn down despite playing his third game in four days, which is really all that Bulls supporters and NBA fans in general care about at this point. He was also pesky on the defensive end and looked quick on his feet. Rose finished with three points, two assists, one rebound, one steal and one block in 17 minutes.Team USA’s three-point shooting has been an issue through three games at the FIBA World Cup, but the Americans were a little bit better against the Kiwis, going 6-for-16 from downtown (38 percent). They shot 51 percent from the floor and assisted on 21 of their 35 field goals.