On a night that smacked of finality at Assembly Hall for the three departing players, the halftime entertainment and even for the veteran PA announcer, the Illini seniors were able to provide some home-court closure to a season that has had very little.

Warren Carter led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds, and Rich McBride came alive in the second half as the seniors closed out their Champaign careers with a 54-42 win over Michigan.

“I gave (the team) a vision that I wanted to take the seniors out at the end of the game,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. “I wanted to have hugs.”

Carter carried the Illini in the first half, scoring eight points as his teammates struggled to find their touch. McBride missed his first five shots and had only two points as the Illini clung to a 23-19 lead at the break.

In the second half, though, McBride came alive, scoring eight quick points and coming up laughing after a falling three-pointer as the Illini pulled away.

“I just tried to relax,” McBride said. “I was just trying to play and not think about anything.”

It was the Illini defense, though, that pulled them through another ugly game. The Wolverines turned the ball over 20 times, and they did not have a single player in double figures. Their 42 points were their lowest total of the season.

“We struggled with it,” Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. “Obviously it’s a tough environment, a tough night. When you’re not scoring … it certainly takes away from your energy throughout the game. Give them credit, they had a nice defensive performance.”

McBride and Carter were instrumental on the defensive end as well, where Carter played what Weber called the best performance of his Illinois career. McBride took a pair of charges and played suffocating defense on Michigan’s Dion Harris, who went 1-10 from the field.

Even the less-acclaimed member of the departing Illini, backup big man Marcus Arnold, added some solid minutes in relief of foul-plagued Brian Randle. Arnold was an immediate spark off the bench in the first half, running the court for a transition lay up and then adding an agile steal moments later. He finished with four points, two rebounds and a block in his final regular season home game.

All three seniors earned chants from the Orange Krush as the game wound down, and McBride and Carter left them with one last highlight. As the clock ran just under two minutes, with the game all but decided, McBride faked a shot and went on a rare tear to the hoop. As two defenders converged on him near the foul line, he lofted a gentle pass that a flying Carter plucked out of the air and dropped neatly into the basket.

It wasn’t their most spectacular play, but an impressive end to both their careers and one last decisive home victory.

“It’s surreal that that was my last game,” Carter said. “But if we would have lost, it really wouldn’t have meant anything.”