Sloppy, yes, but Illinois will gladly take the win
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Demetri McCamey had just finished his least effective game in a month.
He wanted some sleep and needed to prep for a Wednesday morning test.
In short, Illinois' junior point guard had several reasons not to smile after Tuesday night's Big Ten game at Michigan.
But when you've just led your school to its first win at Crisler Arena since the fabled 2004-05 Illini - no matter how heinous it looked to a national ESPN audience - there's no way not to be happy.
Playing its first game against an unranked team in three weeks, Illinois overcame 17 turnovers and 37 percent shooting to edge Michigan 51-44 before perhaps 5,000 fans.
McCamey finished with 14 points, 4 assists, 5 turnovers and a career-high 9 rebounds. Mike Davis contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the year.
"This game's going to help us out in the future," McCamey said. "We need this to stay in the Big Ten race. And like I say, anybody can lose on any given night."
Illinois (18-10, 10-5) almost found a way to lose to a Michigan squad that shot a horrendous 20 percent in the first half and 24.6 percent for the night.
The Wolverines took a brief lead early in the second half and clung within 44-40 with two minutes to go. That's when Illinois pulled off the biggest play of the night.
Michigan's zealous defense forced freshman D.J. Richardson to fling a 30-footer to beat the shot clock. With everyone scrambling for position, the ball clanged off the rim and went long to Mike Tisdale.
Tisdale got it to McCamey, who threw up an alley-oop that Davis threw down to give the Illini a 6-point cushion with 1:53 to go.
"It was a big play," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "A big basket."
The Illini needed all of the ad-libbed baskets they could get as Michigan's switching man-to-man defense shut down their high screens and boggled the visitors.
Illinois committed a shot-clock infraction on the game's opening possession - never coming close to a shot - and rarely found a rhythm.
During one painful stretch that began with 12 minutes to go in the first half, the Illini earned 1 basket in 18 minutes using its half-court offense.
"We wanted to force (McCamey) left and hope he can't make the play with his weaker hand," said Michigan freshman guard Darius Morris. "Our switching pattern on defense really blows up a lot of opponents' offense."
"They just tried to take me and 'Tiz' out of the two-man game," McCamey said.
That forced Illinois to audible to get a big basket from its half-court attack. Weber switched McCamey to shooting guard for one possession and had him use screens to run the baseline.
McCamey curled up to the wing a step ahead of his defender, Bill Cole fed him a pass and McCamey swished a 3-pointer to put Illinois up 39-33 with 9:06 to go.
It took Michigan almost seven minutes to cut into that 6-point margin as junior guard Manny Harris (5 of 17) kept slashing to the hoop and missing point-blank layups.
"This was a big win, a do-or-die game," Davis said. "We couldn't have any more lapses. We've got to win the rest out."