With just under ten minutes left, momentum decidedly on Iowa’s side and the game possibly hinging on the next several possessions, the Illini calmly dribbled the ball down the court and sent a three-point attempt clanging off the rim. After a defensive stop, they missed another. And then another.

For four consecutive possessions in the second half, Illinois tossed up contested three-pointers – indicative of its offensive struggles all day. The Illini looked stagnant nearly every time they touched the ball, costing them a win and a shot at third place in the Big Ten.

“You’ve really got to make some shots,” Weber said. “I thought coming into the year three-point shooting was going to be one of our strengths. Rich (McBride) is trying to be the senior, make the big play, but a couple of (his shots) were way far out and early in the shot clock. Chester gets a couple, and they were open looks, but they were way far out. I wish we could have gotten better shots or had a guy find a way to make a play.”

The Illini turned the ball over nine times in the first half, then looked tentative in the second half when they made just 9 of 26 from the floor and 2 of 12 from three-point range.

The Hawkeyes outscored the Illini 33-25 in the second half to come back and put the game away.

Illinois started strong offensively, getting eight quick points from Warren Carter and earning an early lead. But Carter turned his ankle shortly thereafter and finished with just 12 points. Chester Frazier had just three points on 1 of 6 shooting and Brian Randle shot 3-10 and turned the ball over five times.

“In the first half (Randle) just put his head down and tried to go one-on-one,” Weber said. “I want him to get it coming off screens, or moving or running. Not just standing out there, (so) everybody in the gym knows he’s going one-on-one.”

Haluska continues tear

In recent weeks, Bruce Weber has been touting Rich McBride as a defensive stopper in addition to a three-point threat.

McBride had his toughest test so far in Iowa’s Adam Haluska and had no more luck than anybody else in stopping the Big Ten’s leading scorer.

Haluska scored 21 points against the Illini on 46 percent shooting, merely an average game for the Hawkeyes’ star. He also got McBride into early foul trouble, taking him out of the game and limiting the Illinois offense. With McBride in and out of the lineup, Illinois ran a succession of other defenders at Haluska, but couldn’t keep him from scoring and getting to the free-throw line.

“Rich really battled,” Haluska said. “It’s just one of those things where you make sure you’re coming off screens and working hard at both ends. If they’re going to really pressure me, I think it opens up things for a lot of my teammates.”

Haluska scored four fewer points than in the teams’ first meeting, but this time his teammates were able to push Iowa in front. With the game tied at 49 and three and a half minutes left, sophomore guard Tony Freeman demanded the ball from Haluska and hit consecutive three-pointers to give him 13 points and put the Hawkeyes up for good.

“We let a guy who only averages six score 13,” Illinois center Shaun Pruitt said. “The coaches said before we came out for the second half that we can’t let the other guys hurt us, and I think that’s what cost us the game.”

Pruitt comes up big

in losing effort

The only bright spot for the Illini offense was center Shaun Pruitt, who matched a career high with 20 points and nine rebounds.

“We just kept feeding it to him down low,” Carter said. “We did a good job of penetrating and then getting it to him. That opened up a lot of plays for him inside.

Pruitt was effective nearly every time he got the ball, hitting eight of 13 shots and abusing some of Iowa’s slimmer defenders. But he struggled once again at the free-throw line, hitting just four of seven attempts and missing two crucial ones with the game tied late in the second half. He rebounded two minutes later with a two-handed dunk in the face of a defender, but by that time the Illini were already down six.

After the game, Pruitt was more concerned with the loss than his own performance.

“I think I should have made the two previous free throws I missed,” Pruitt said. “There were a lot of plays down the stretch that we should have made but we didn’t.”

Quote of the game

“I just think we played dumb.” -Bruce Weber