Deon Thomas knew his sneakers were behind the three-point line. And he knew he wasn’t going to see many more chances like this.
So with only seconds left in Illinois’ 80-68 victory over Ohio State Tuesday night, the leading scorer in school history grabbed a loose ball and fired up the second three-point shot of his career.
Nothing but net.
“No doubt,” said Thomas, who missed his first trey earlier this season. “I just gunned it up.”
Thomas wound up with a game-high 24 points to lead his team in scoring for the fourth straight game. But most of them were a lot easier to come by than his late bomb. A school-record 19 of his points came from the free-throw line.
“I’ll take them any way they come,” Thomas said.
The victory over the Buckeyes, who have lost leading scorer Derek Anderson to a knee injury, produced little other news. Illinois climbed into a fourth-place tie with Minnesota. But the Illini, revealed as counterfeit contenders for the Big 10 title, are playing for an NCAA tournament bid.
Before the game, coach Lou Henson calculated the Illini needed to split their last eight games to earn an invitation. A split would leave Illinois 10-8 in conference play (17-10 overall), and since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, every 10-8 team from the Big 10 has drawn a bid.
All Illinois has to do for a split is win the rest of its home games- against Wisconsin, Penn State and Minnesota. The road promises nothing but trouble, with visits to old enemy Iowa on Saturday and league-leading Michigan Feb. 22. The Illini also have to play at Indiana and Purdue, which are tied for second.
The Illini improved to 14-6, 7-4 in the the Big 10, precisely the record they had after 20 games last season. That Illini team, which finished 19-13, drew a sixth seed in the West Regional and didn’t survive the tournament’s first weekend, was considered a pleasant surprise.
This one isn’t. Illinois has higher expectations this year and will be quite disappointed if it doesn’t make it to the Sweet 16.
Much will depend on whether the Illini can gain consistency. Too often they’ve followed up a terrific game with a stinker.
On Tuesday, they did the opposite. After losing a shocker at last-place Northwestern, the Illini ran away from 10th-place Ohio State in the second half.
Thomas wasn’t the only hero. Kiwane Garris scored 20. Tom Michael hit 4 of 7 three-pointers for 12 points. And Shelly Clark, limited to three points in his last two games, scored 13, his highest total in a month.
They all made it possible for Illinois to wrap this one up long before Thomas’ bomb.
The shot was all the more beautiful because it wasn’t planned. As the clock unwound, Richard Keene lofted a lazy pass into the lane. The ball deflected out to Thomas, who was loitering on the left wing.
“I told him that he didn’t want to go into the book 0 for 1,” Michael said. “He has that range.”
Thomas practices three-pointers with teammate Chris Gandy, but he didn’t become a 60 percent career shooter from the floor by gunning from afar. Thomas’ 6-foot-9-inch frame is longer than many of his shots.
Still, his 50 percent career three-point average puts him at the top of the all-time Illinois list.
