COLLEGE BASKETBALL ILLINI TOURNAMENT : CS Long Beach Falls to Georgia Southern, 84-67

Junior guard Tony Windless scored 21 points to lead Georgia Southern to an 84-67 victory over Cal State Long Beach in the Illini basketball tournament Friday night.

The victory put Georgia Southern into today’s championship game against Illinois, a 112-78 winner over Oregon State. Illinois has won 23 games without a loss in its tournament.

Long Beach and Oregon State will play a consolation game today.

Long Beach (1-3) led, 25-19, with six minutes remaining in the first half. But Georgia Southern (2-2) went on a 17-4 scoring run to take a 36-29 lead at halftime and was never seriously threatened in the second half.

Georgia Southern also received double-figure scoring from guard Charlton Young (18 points) and center Emmitt Smith (16).

Forward Frankie Edwards led Long Beach with 16 points, and guard Lucious Harris had 13.

In the first game, Oregon State took a 15-8 lead, but Illinois battled back and took the lead for good at 27-26 with 6:30 left in the first half.

The Illini broke the game open with a 24-4 scoring run that put them ahead, 83-54, with seven minutes left.

Forward Andy Kaufmann led Illinois (5-3) with 24 points and teammate Deon Thomas had 22. Forward Teo Alibegovic led Oregon State (1-1) with 24 points.