The perfect play.
A perfect pass.
A perfectly-timed leap.
And the perfect hero taking a perfect game-winning shot to rescue victory from a potentially devastating defeat.
Fourth-ranked Illinois’ dramatic, last-second 68-67 victory over Wisconsin Tuesday night at the Assembly Hall had everything you could ask for. But the best thing it had, as far as the Illini are concerned, was Marcus Griffin.
Grabbing a gorgeous lob pass in midair from Sean Harrington, Griffin soared over the Badgers’ Maurice Linton with :01 on the clock and sank his shot to help first-place Illinois (20-5, 10-2) increase its lead in the Big Ten to 1 1/2 games over idle Michigan State.
“Griff had a coming-out party tonight,” crowed Illinois coach Bill Self after watching his team rally from a huge 35-22 halftime deficit. “Griff is back.”
Griffin had been struggling lately to overcome a tailbone bruise, but he didn’t struggle against the No. 19 Badgers (15-7, 6-5). After being held to two points by Michigan State last week and only eight Saturday at Purdue, he scored 11 of his 18 points after the break.
The game-winner, though, was the best.
“I wouldn’t say I was struggling,” said Griffin with a wink. “I just haven’t been making any shots. It felt so good to finally knock one down.”
Frank Williams, who scored 18 of his game-high 22 points and Brian Cook, who had 13 of his 16 after the break, keyed the Illini’s second biggest comeback of the year. Illinois rallied from 17 down to beat Seton Hall in overtime on Dec. 9. The only negative for the Illini: the end of Cory Bradford’s NCAA record streak of three-pointers at 88 games. Bradford was 0 for 6 from beyond the arc and 1 for 7 overall.
Yet that only made the comeback more impressive. Self said that being down 13 to the defensive-minded Badgers is “equivalent to 25 against anybody else.”
Kirk Penney led Wisconsin with 18 points, including two clutch free throws that put the Badgers ahead 67-66 with 10 seconds to go. But after Williams drove the length of the court and put up a layup that was short the ball went out of bounds to Illinois with :02 to go.
“I diagrammed the play in the huddle,” said Wisconsin coach Brad Soderberg, “and we defended it exactly the way we wanted to defend it but a great player (Griffin) made a great play.”
After missing 10 of its first 12 shots from the floor and making only 1 of 9 three-point attempts in the first half, Illinois needed a ton of great plays to pull off the comeback. Wisconsin was 9 of 17 from three-point range for the game and held the Illini to a season-low 22 points in the first 20 minutes.
Illinois’ ability to pound the ball inside on the Badgers in the second half, though, made up for Bradford’s shortfall. The Illini shot 52 percent from the floor in the second half and made 21-of-28 free throw attempts in the game by attacking the basket relentlessly.
Finally, with 7:09 to go, the Illini started to make the Badgers sweat. A layup and two free throws by Cook and two free throws by Williams cut Wisconsin’s lead to 51-48.
Illinois caught up at 59-59 on a three by Williams and a free throw with 3:32 left.
Two free throws by Griffin with 2:14 to go put Illinois in front 62-61–its first lead since 3-2 and put the crowd of 16,683 back into the game.
With retired Badger coach Dick Bennett sitting behind the Wisconsin bench, the Illini went on to claim one of their most inspirational victories of the year. The other thing that was perfect was their timing. With critical games at Indiana on Saturday and Ohio State on Feb. 22 a loss to Wisconsin at home would have been a severe blow to Illinois’ title aspirations.
“That’s why college basketball is the best,” said Self. “This would have been a crushing loss if Griff’s shot doesn’t go down. It’ll be a lot easier to get up for Indiana after this.”
