IOWA CITY, Iowa – For Illinois, the same situation continues to replay itself. The team has seen second-half leads evaporate both at home and on the road in eight of 10 games, and on Saturday, as it closed out its regular season schedule, it looked to overcome a hostile environment at a time when it really mattered.

But with the game tied at 49 with 4:47 remaining, the Illini’s chances were buried just as quickly as Tony Freeman hit back-to-back three pointers. After getting a week to prepare for Iowa, Illinois could only answer back with 13 turnovers, 20 fouls and 36 percent field-goal shooting in its 60-53 loss at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“I thought they were there; I just thought we didn’t play smart,” head coach Bruce Weber said. “We played hard – just too many turnovers in the first half, breakdown defensively in execution down the stretch.

“I thought we played a little soft at times, which disappointed me.”

Junior center Shaun Pruitt led the Illini (21-10, 9-7) with 20 points (8-of-13 shooting) and nine rebounds, while senior forward Warren Carter added 12 points, eight of which came in the opening four minutes. Aside from Pruitt’s play, Weber said he would have liked to see more involvement from Brian Randle (seven points, six rebounds) when it came to him moving to the ball, along with Illinois’ bench production. Iowa’s reserves held a 16-2 scoring advantage over Illinois.

“Everything we’ve been through – the adversity, the injuries and the off-the-court stuff – it just would have been nice to have been great to be third and be 10-6 in the Big Ten, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” Pruitt said.

Although Illinois led 28-27 going into halftime, it committed nine first-half turnovers and saw Iowa (17-13, 9-7) make eight of 12 free throws in the first 20 minutes.

Weber said the Illini didn’t keep the Hawkeyes off the free-throw line – something they addressed in the days leading up to the match-up, while Pruitt said Iowa’s press forced Illinois to lose its poise.

“I thought in the first half, it’s the worst we’ve been in weeks about going one-on-one and dribbling and putting (the ball) on floor,” Weber said. “It’s just baffling to me because every time we spread them and moved the ball, it seemed like we got decent shots.”

Down the stretch, though, Pruitt missed two key free throws and was called for a blocking foul.

The Illini thought Pruitt had position and should have forced the charge, but the referees saw it differently. It was a situation Carter, who re-injured his ankle in the first half, remembers well.

“It’s a tough one to swallow; it kind of feels like the (65-61) loss to Indiana (on Feb. 10),” Carter said. “We’re right there in a tough environment and it was another one of those block charge fouls that (Armon) Bassett had at Indiana and it just had the same result.”

Big Ten leading scorer Adam Haluska had a game-high 21 points, while Freeman added 13 points.

With the loss, Illinois will open the Big Ten Tournament as the sixth seed and take on Penn State at 4 p.m. on Thursday at the United Center. Prior to the game, Pruitt hopes Illinois can solve its problem of seeing the opponent as the aggressor and Randle hopes the Illini can get rid of the “sour taste” in their mouths.

“A couple charges didn’t go our way; it just hurts because we’ve had it before,” Randle said. “We’ve been there and done that.”