Good game, disappointing result for Illini

Posted In: Herald & Review Mark Tupper Illini
Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2010

If you were at the Assembly Hall Tuesday night, you know that was a really good atmosphere and a very entertaining game to watch. A little frustrating, perhaps, if you were rooting for the Illini, but a heck of a college basketball game. But intense and full of hustle.
Illinois won the first half, but by just four points when the lead could have been eight or 10. Then Purdue took instant charge of the second half and controlled it throughout, even though Illinois staged a pretty nice rally from 12 down, making it a one-possession game at 81-78 on Demetri McCamey’s 3-pointer with 22 seconds to go.
But Purdue was tough at the free throw line all night and they sealed it there by making 11 of 14 in the final 2:18 minutes of the game.
Missed free throws will haunt the Illini in this one. I thought McCamey was outstanding with 28 points and nine assists. But he missed six free throws in a 13-for-19 performance. And Mike Davis, who broke out of his slump with 17 points and 15 rebounds, was 1-for-4 at the line. As a team, Illinois missed a dozen free throws (17 for 29) and that was a killer.
So was Illinois’ second half defense (allowing 56 points and countless dribble-penetration baskets).
Illinois did do a good job on Robbie Hummel, limiting him to two baskets and 11 points. Bill Cole got the starting assignment on him and Cole had three blocked shots, using his length to frustrate Hummel a little bit.
But Illinois couldn’t stop JaJuan Johnson (24 points, 12 rebounds) and Purdue got great bench play from a pair of freshmen, John Hart and Kelsey Barlow.
Hart’s play was out of the blue. Illinois didn’t even have him in their scouting report, McCamey said, because Hart had not played in any of Purdue’s five Big Ten games. In fact, Purdue forget to record his name in the official scoreboard and was whistled for an administrative technical foul, which resulted in two McCamey free throws.
Hart scored 14 points and hit a pair of big 3-pointers for Purdue. He made 5 of 10 shots. Coming into the game he had made 3 of 14 shots and all 8 of his points had come against Buffalo.
Illinois is proving to be a team that can play good basketball in stretches, very good basketball at times. But it can’t sustain the play and when going against a team that just a while ago was 14-0 and ranked No. 4 in the country, that’s not going to be good enough.
Illinois should be ashamed of its flat play in the first three minutes of the second half, when Purdue jumped to an 11-2 burst to steal control of the game. That’s inexcusable.
Disappointing was the continued foul trouble for Mike Tisdale. He played 20 minutes and finished with four points and five rebounds. This was a game when Illinois needed more and Tisdale will either figure out how the refs are calling post play or he’ll continue spending more time on the bench as he does on the court.
Now the pressure increases for Illinois, with road games at Northwestern and Penn State up next. Somehow they’d better figure out a way to win one (or both) of those. I’m not optimistic. At least Davis got going again. And maybe Tisdale can find comfort knowing Northwestern is next. He scored 31 against the Wildcats when they played in Champaign.

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