CHICAGO – Dave Sobolewski scored 17 of his career-high 25 points in the first half and Drew Crawford added 18 as Northwestern routed Illinois-Chicago 93-58 on Wednesday night.
Northwestern (2-2) opened the game with a 17-4 lead on Sanjay Lumpkin's layup and JerShon Cobb's 3-pointer extended the lead to 20-6 as the Wildcats led wire to wire.
Jordan Harks led Illinois-Chicago (1-3) with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Marc Brown, who averaged 21.7 points in the first three games, was held to seven points.
Northwestern tied the all-time series at 4-4, rebounding from last season's home loss to the Flames.
Sobolewski sparked the Wildcats with 13 points in the first 11:13 of the game. He also connected on back-to-back 3-pointers with Crawford to extend the lead to 39-14. The Flames trailed by as many as 29 in the first half as Northwestern was 7-for-12 from 3-point range in the half.
Northwestern led 47-22 at the half. Crawford scored eight points.
Sobolewski was a high school teammate of Frank Kaminsky at Benet High School in Lisle, Ill., who set a Wisconsin school record with 43 points in a win against North Dakota. He made all six 3-point attempts. Sobolewski was 4-for-6 from 3-point range in the first half.
Northwestern rebounded from back-to-back losses to Stanford and a home loss to Illinois State on Sunday.
Kelsey Barlow led Illinois-Chicago with five points in the half and finished with 10. As a team they shot 22.6 percent in the half and allowed Northwestern to shoot 57.1 percent.
Lumpkin finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Alex Olah scored 10 points.
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