Penn State knocks off No. 18 Illinois, 38-33

CHAMPAIGN - The final score suggests Illinois and Penn State let the air out of the ball Wednesday night at Assembly Hall.

But the only thing that went "pfft" was No. 18 Illinois' hopes for a Big Ten title.

Blessed with a chance to pull within a half-game of Michigan State for the league's top spot, the Illini scrapped into a 9-point lead with 10:20 to go.

But Penn State limited Illinois to just 4 points the rest of the way and clawed back for a 38-33 Big Ten triumph in Division I's lowest-scoring game since Dec. 14, 2005.

Penn State's Talor Battle (11 points) hit 4 free throws in the final 17 seconds to finish as the only player in double figures.

Chester Frazier and Trent Meacham led Illinois with 7 points each.

"At the end I was like, 'We set this back a few years,' " said Penn State coach Ed DeChellis. "(James) Naismith probably rolled over several times."

The Illini hadn't scored so few points since Jan. 6, 1947, when they took a 34-31 loss to Minnesota at Huff Gym.

In addition to Illinois shattering its previous low at 46-year-old Assembly Hall by 11 points, the teams combined to set Hall records for fewest points (71) and worst field-goal accuracy (29.2 percent).

Oh, and the Illini failed to get to the free-throw line for the first time at the Hall.

"I didn't care about the score," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "I just wanted to win. They don't care what the score was. They win. They went home happy."

By becoming the first Big Ten team to win at Illinois this year, Penn State (19-8, 8-6) gave its NCAA Tournament hopes a big boost.

The Illini (21-6, 9-5) will have to forget about winning their fifth Big Ten crown in nine years, but review all the ways they ruined their chances against Penn State.

When a sickly Demetri McCamey canned a 3-pointer with 10:20 to go, Illinois took a 29-20 lead.

At that juncture, Penn State was 1-for-15 from the field in the second half and 7 of 36 for the game. But from that point forward the Nittany Lions cashed 6 of 10 shots and all 5 of their free throws.

Illinois, meanwhile, hit just 2 of 8 shots and committed 6 turnovers of varying incredulity, including 4 in a row during the stretch when Penn State seized the lead.

These were the two biggest:

• With 4:11 to go, Chris Babb cut in front of McCamey's soft pass to Meacham, stole the ball in front of the Illini bench and fed it ahead to Stanley Pringle for a layup that gave Penn State a 32-31 lead.

• With 2:49 to go and PSU up 32-31, Mike Tisdale was whistled for goaltending when his left hand tapped in McCamey's 10-foot pull-up that appeared to be bouncing through the rim with no assistance.

Illinois then had two possessions in the final minute to tie or take the lead, but McCamey went 1-on-1 and had a go-ahead pull-up blocked by the shorter Pringle with 40 seconds left.

"He wanted to make a play, probably tried to make too tough a play," Weber said. "We had a quick hitter coming out of the out of bounds. If not, we did talk about trying to get it in to Tisdale."

Then, trailing by 3, McCamey came up short on a tough 23-footer with five seconds left.

"I think we thought we'd get it going and it never got going," Meacham said. "It was just a long night from the beginning to the end."