No. 22 Arizona slips past Illinois, 78-72

If Illinois winds up on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament borderline in March, then everyone will look back at a maddening December afternoon as a prime reason the committee ruled against the Illini.

After jumping on No. 22 Arizona from the outset … and controlling a wildly entertaining game most of the way … and receiving the last chance to win in regulation…

"We choked at the end," said Illinois senior center Shaun Pruitt.

With Illinois making turnovers and missing free throws down the stretch, Arizona rallied from a 12-point deficit with 13 minutes left to force overtime. Once there, the Wildcats scored on the extra session's first possession and kept on going for a 78-72 victory before 19,573 disappointed fans at the United Center.

"It's an NCAA game," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber. "It's a huge game for us and it was sitting there for us. We played so well.

"Very similar to last year (in the) NCAA against Virginia Tech, if you think about it."

The Illini (5-3) committed 13 turnovers and shot 4 of 12 from the free-throw line after halftime to ruin all of their good work elsewhere.

Illinois leaped out to a 12-0 lead as Arizona (6-2) turned over the ball seven times in its first nine possessions. Interim Wildcats coach Kevin O'Neill burned two timeouts in the first four minutes to try to figure things out.

"We said going into the game this was going to be a grind game," O'Neill said. "They ground us into mincemeat in the first half."

The Illini took a 35-28 lead at the break as they pounded the ball into the post to Pruitt, who scored 12 of his career-high 24 points in the first half.

Meanwhile, Chester Frazier chased Jerryd Bayless (19.9 ppg) and Brian Randle hounded Chase Budinger (18.4 ppg) into dreadful first-half showings.

Until Bayless cashed a 3-pointer just before the break, the Wildcats' stars settled for 1 first-half point on 0-for-9 shooting.

Illinois kept on clicking early in the second half. When Pruitt passed out of a double team to get Calvin Brock an open 17-footer, the Illini led 46-34 with 13:18 to go.

Then came the start of the Virginia Tech dÃÆ'ˆ©jÃÆ' vu.

While Illinois' half-court offense ground to a halt - committing 7 turnovers in the final six minutes - Arizona's Bayless heated up outside and sophomore center Jordan Hill (career-high 23 points and 14 rebounds) kept taking advantage of Illinois' overaggressive help defense for easy dunks.

Hill's dunk with 57 seconds left gave Arizona a 1-point edge, but Brock cashed a 17-footer and Frazier forced Bayless into a bad shot.

Trent Meacham grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 20 seconds to go, but the 77 percent foul shooter missed his second try to keep Illinois' lead at 61-59.

Hill muscled his way for a putback to tie it with 0:08 left, so Illinois called timeout and called a set play to find either Brock outside or Pruitt inside.

Instead, Frazier ran upcourt and tried to chuck a long 3-pointer. Arizona's Nic Wise ripped it from him as Frazieer went up, grabbed the ball with two seconds left and signaled to official Kevin Mathis for a timeout the Wildcats didn't have.

"Saw him AND heard him," Meacham said.

But Mathis, just five feet away, didn't acknowledge Wise, which would have resulted in a technical foul.

"I almost did, but then I remembered we didn't have any timeouts," Wise said with a smile. "That would've been like one of those Chris Webber deals. I almost did, but at the last minute I pulled up."

Illinois' assistant coaches thought otherwise and screamed at Mathis during the interlude between regulation and overtime, but to no avail.

"I would've felt bad for the kid," Weber said. "I wouldn't want our kid to be in that circumstance. I know it's a rule, but we should've won the game with the free throws and just making some plays."