CHAMPAIGN—Northwestern has never made the NCAA Tournament,and has hoped to get that monkey off their backs this winter,but it’s not looking good. They fell behind 44-21 to No. 20 Illinois which went on to an easy 88-63 win at the Assembley Hall Thursday night.Demetri McCamey led the Illini with 14 points, and was one of six Illinois players to score in double figures. Mike Tisdale had 13, Davis 12, Meyers Leonard and Jereme Richmond 11 each and D.J. Richardson 10.The Illini (13-3, 3-0 Big Ten) led by 25 at the half, 49-24, and several times pushed their edge past 30 in the final 20 minutes. They hit 18 of their 22 first-half shots — 81.8 percent — and finished at 70.5 percent.Illinois toyed with Northwestern’s defense for much of the first half, rattling off a run of 3-pointers for a 9-2 lead, and added three straight dunks, the last of which came from the 7-foot-1 Tisdale and put Illinois up 42-19 with 2:32 left in the half.Illinois led 47-24 at the half and scored its 65th point — the Wildcats (9-4, 0-3) had been giving up 65.8 a game — less than seven minutes into the second half.NU’s problems were almost too many to count.Illinois outrebounded the Wildcats 40-17, and, at one point, had an 11-1 edge — an advantage that, with just under eight minutes to play in the first half had the Illini up 33-17.John Shurna, the Wildcats’ leading scorer at 21.3 a game and the country’s most accurate 3-point shooter, didn’t take a shot in the first 6 ½ minutes and didn’t make one until almost nine minutes had passed. Struggling with an ankle sprain, he spent most of the second half on the bench and finished with seven points.”He may not be 100 percent for three weeks,” Bill Carmody said. The Wildcats shot just 34.3 percent overall.McCamey and Davis finished with seven assists each.If there was any doubt the Illini would defend their 23-point lead when they left the locker room, Mike Davis erased it. The forward scored the first five points of the half — three on free throws and two on a short jumper — for a 52-24 lead.He keyed a 14-7 run that stretched the lead to 32 at 63-31 with 14:34 to play.And this was an Illini team that lost to Sister School UIC a couple of weeks ago in the United Center! NU struggled to get the deficit below 20 over the final 20 minutes. JerShon Cobb’s 3 with 2:38 to play trimmed Illinois’ lead to 19 at 78-59.Cobb led Northwestern (9-4, 0-3) with 18 points, and Juice Thompson had 15.