No. 19 West Virginia's defense, so suffocating against inferior competition to begin the season, looked even more disruptive against Illinois during an 89-57 romp Thursday in the NIT Tipoff semifinals in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Nathan Adrian had 13 points and eight rebounds despite early foul trouble, and Jevon Carter made six steals to go along with 10 points and five assists for the Mountaineers (4-0), whose full-court pressure forced 24 turnovers to fuel the blowout.

"We were flying around pretty good there for a good stretch of the game, and we're pretty deep so we keep bringing guys in," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "We wear on people, and when you get tired you don't do things as fundamentally good."

Michael Finke's 13 points paced Illinois (4-2), while reserve center Mike Thorne added 10. Leading scorer Malcolm Hill was held to seven points, 11 below his average, and was among five Illini players with three turnovers.

Illinois coach John Groce said West Virginia's trapping defense proved impossible to simulate in practice.

"Our coaches have been working on this press since August, running six-on-five and even some seven-on-five drills, and we did it because we knew we were playing them," Groce said. "We were good in practice but in real-time speed it was a lot different."

Twelve players scored for West Virginia, which dominated despite not having a double-digit scorer until Adrian's free throw made it 74-39 with 8:41 remaining.

The Mountaineers advanced to Friday's NIT Tipoff championship game to face Temple, an 89-85 upset winner over No. 25 Florida State in the first semifinal.

After trailing by 19 at intermission, Illinois went scoreless for nearly four minutes to open the second half, committing six turnovers in the stretch before Leron Black's layup ended the drought. By that point, West Virginia's cushion had ballooned to 60-29.

The Mountaineers committed only six turnovers -- two by walk-ons in garbage time -- and dished out 15 assists while making 15 steals. They shot 45 percent from the floor, though they hit only 17 of 30 at the foul line.

"Illinois, I think, is one of the Big Ten teams that's supposed to make the NCAA tournament," Huggins said. "So I can't complain much about the win except for missing too many free throws."

Guard Daxter Miles, making his first appearance of the season after what Huggins described as a bout of mononucleosis, finished with eight points and three steals. He made two 3-pointers to spark a first-half 18-2 run that pushed the Mountaineers ahead 25-11.

Lamont West's buzzer-beating tip-in -- West Virginia's third chance in the final five seconds -- made the halftime margin 48-29.

Center Elijah Macon, back in Huggins' rotation after being benched the previous game, contributed nine points and six rebounds off the bench. He combined with Brandon Watkins (3 for 3 from the floor) and freshman Sagaba Konate to give West Virginia 20 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks from the position in 34 minutes.

"That's the best they've been," Huggins said.

NOTES: West Virginia owned a 34-1 edge in points off turnovers. ... Both teams were missing assistant coaches due to back ailments. Illini assistant Dustin Ford remained at the team hotel during the game, while West Virginia's Ron Everhart did not make the trip to New York. ... The Mountaineers had been 0-2 at Barclays Center, including last season's NCAA first-round upset loss to Stephen F. Austin. ... Groce found a silver lining as the Illini trailed only 44-40 in rebounding. "West Virginia, they're going to be top five nationally in rebounding, so I told our coaches we needed to at least be competitive in that area," he said.