Penn State 38, (18) Illinois 33
Following Purdue's 18 point route of Michigan State on Tuesday, the Illini held high hopes for winning at least a share of the Big Ten conference title.
Coming into the game the Illini brought in a 10 game home win streak, and Penn State came into Assembly Hall looking for their third straight win in Champaign.
Both teams needed a feeling out process as they combined to miss their first 10 shots before Mike Davis hit a jumper at the 15:57 mark to put the Illini up 2-0. Both teams shot .300 or less in the game, Penn State shooting 13-46 (.283%) and Illinois going 15-50 (.300%) from the field.
To make an ugly and long story short, this win is a big one for Penn State. Talor Battle led all scorers with 11 points, while Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale combined for just 10 points for the Illini.
While Illinois' hope for being conference champions were most likely shattered, Penn State may have solidified a spot in the NCAA tournament field.
*Fact: The teams’ combined 71 points was the lowest total in Division I men’s basketball since Monmouth beat Princeton 41-21 in 2005.
This game was just awful in every aspect, so I decided to relive this Illinois basketball miracle and the greatest game I'll most likely ever see. When the Illini went down 15 I wanted to take back my years and years of fanhood, put it in a bag, and incinerate it.
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That Arizona/Illinois game could have cost me my tournament pool that year. I had UNC and Illinois in the final, which is what it was. All my friends picked Illinois. I picked North Carolina and paid for my Prom ticket with the winnings.
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