Illini's impromptu press helps erase 14-point deficit

Illinois and Northwestern hadn't played a close game in a decade, but they made up for it all in one night.

Fueled by a full-court press drawn up on the fly by assistant coach Wayne McClain, Illinois rallied from a 14-point deficit with 5:21 left to turn Thursday night's final possession into the one that decided the game.

With the overflow crowd at Welsh-Ryan Arena standing and roaring their split allegiances, sophomore guard Demetri McCamey banked in a running 14-footer with 2.9 seconds to go to give No. 22 Illinois a crazy 60-59 Big Ten win in Evanston.

It served as the only lead for the Illini (20-5, 8-4), who moved into second place alone in the Big Ten.

"We found a way to win a game probably we shouldn't have won, to be honest," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber.

"My heart goes out to (NU coach) Bill (Carmody) and his team because I thought they were much more ready to play than we were."

But the Wildcats (13-9, 4-7), who got a career-high 14 points and 12 rebounds from freshman center Luka Mirkovic in his first start, weren't ready to handle Illinois' impromptu diamond press.

It happened to be the same one McClain utilized at Peoria Manual to win a bunch of Class AA state titles in the 1990s.

"It's a universal press Johnny Wooden used for years," McClain said. "We never practice it."

But Illinois turned it into five minutes of hell for NU.

Coming out of a timeout trailing 57-45, the Illini trapped Craig Moore in the corner and Trent Meacham stole his pass for an easy layup.

Northwestern regained a 59-50 lead with 2:22 to go on Kevin Coble's 10-foot fade over Meacham, but that was all for the hosts.

With the Wildcats out of timeouts because they used them up struggling to get across halfcourt, McCamey and Dominique Keller double-teamed Moore and earned a jump ball that went Illinois' way with 1:10 to go.

Meacham sank a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the margin to 59-56, then Moore traveled into a triple team.

That turnover led to Meacham's driving layup, then the senior stripped Juice Thompson on a drive and knocked the ball off the NU point guard with 14.7 seconds to go.

Illinois used its last timeout to set up a Mike Davis slip screen for a layup, but it turned into McCamey's time. He made an off-balance runner over the shorter Thompson.

"Me and Coach Weber were shooting that shot earlier in shootaround this morning because I've been in a slump," McCamey said, "so we're getting extra shots in working on bank shots and things like that."

Meanwhile, Northwestern felt like it took an extra shot to the heart just like the 2-point Purdue home loss on Jan. 15.

"I think this was even worse because we were up around 10 or so with three minutes to go," Coble said.