Illini take care of business at Iowa, 57-49
IOWA CITY - Everyone else pegged Saturday's showdown with No. 5 Michigan State as Illinois' biggest game of the week.
The Illini knew otherwise.
They needed their 57-49 Big Ten win at Iowa on Wednesday night - no matter how heinous it looked - in order to make their long-anticipated ESPN date with the Spartans a potential night to remember.
"This was a win-or-pretty-much-go-home game," said Illini junior forward Mike Davis, who hit a key jumper with 2:51 to go to repel yet another Iowa surge to get within 3 points.
"The last eight-game stretch is ugly. We play the top teams in the league."
The Illini appeared clearly better than Iowa and led for the final 26 minutes - including an 11-point margin with 16 minutes to go - but the visitors made enough silly plays to give the Hawkeyes a chance in the final minute.
After Demetri McCamey's turnover when he inexplicably tried a half-court alley-oop to Bill Cole with a fresh shot clock, Iowa called a timeout trailing 52-49 with 0:58 left.
Coach Todd Lickliter designed a play with freshman point guard Cully Payne as the first option, but the Schaumburg High School graduate couldn't finish his hard drive to the hoop.
Illinois (15-8, 7-3) hit 5 free throws in the final 34 seconds to pull within 2 games of the Spartans in the Big Ten chase.
McCamey paced the Illini with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, yet he walked out of the locker room chastising himself.
"This was probably the dumbest game I've played this year," McCamey said. "Bill was wide open. It just slipped. I tried to rush it. You know how you get excited and things just go too fast?
"I should have pulled it out and been smart and acted like I've been there before like I have."
It's hard to blame McCamey. There were plenty of bad decisions and unnecessary turnovers to last both teams a month.
When the Hawkeyes (8-15, 2-8) weren't busy taking tough shots to finish with 29.4 percent field-goal accuracy, they tried to complete passes with no margin for error.
"We probably tried to make 10 plays that the best players can't make," Lickliter said. "When I say the best players, (I mean) the NBA guys. We tried to make plays that just aren't there."
Payne, who revealed after the game that he has pneumonia, tried his best to carry the Hawks to the finish line.
With Iowa down 8 points with less than five minutes to go, Payne drilled a 3-pointer and then kept attacking the basket.
Illinois didn't figure out how to stop him AND grab the defensive rebound until his final miss with 40 seconds to go.
"It's a win," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber. "We wish it was a little prettier, but it is what it is. We're 7-3. We kind of set a goal of being 8-2, but we fell a little bit short.
"Now we have (ESPN) GameDay, Michigan State coming in Saturday night. Second place - we can make a push here and take some steps."