Sometimes, Frank Williams plays like there’s nothing he can’t do. Sometimes, there is seemingly no predicament from which he can’t rescue his team with his talent and his guts.
The Ohio State Buckeyes, though, weren’t interested in playing innocent bystanders to another miracle Thursday night. “Stop Williams!” became their battle cry.
With 7.2 seconds left to play and Illinois trailing Ohio State by two points, every Buckeye and all 19,200 fans at Value City Arena knew exactly who was going to get the ball. Williams already had scored 22 points, had five assists and had collected four steals to ignite the third-ranked Illini’s comeback from a seven-point halftime deficit.
Taking a pass from Brian Cook near half-court, Williams dribbled left as the clock ticked down. Suddenly his path to the basket disappeared. Trapped for an instant along the sideline, he wiggled loose. Cook had broken free by now and was wide open at the top of the key. But Williams never saw him.
With no options left, Williams put up a desperation shot from behind the arc–and hit nothing but air as the buzzer sounded.
Illinois’ bid for a critical road victory and a triumph that would have set up a chance to clinch at least a tie for the Big Ten title Saturday against Iowa in Champaign had fallen short 63-61. Ohio State was led by junior guard Brian Brown with 18 points and senior center Ken Johnson, who scored 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots to tie former Penn State star Calvin Booth’s Big Ten career record.
The hometown hero was sophomore guard Sean Connolly, who made a three-pointer from the corner with 29 seconds to go provide the winning margin.
Williams blamed himself for the loss, ignoring the14 points and five assists he contributed in the final 20 minutes.
“All I saw was about 12 guys around me,” Williams said. “They did a good job of trapping me. I couldn’t find anybody open so I took the shot. This is real tough. I take the responsibility. This is my ballclub. I’m the point guard.”
Illinois (21-6, 11-3) still can win its outright first league title since 1952, but it won’t be easy. To do it, second-place Michigan State (21-3, 10-3) will have to lose again. The Spartans are at Penn State on Saturday and at Wisconsin on Tuesday. They finish at home against Michigan on March 3.
In a game of spurts and runs, Illinois played from behind most of the night. Johnson was its nemesis in the first half, scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds. The Illini did a better job in the second half with Cook, Marcus Griffin (12 points), Robert Archibald and Damir Krupalija all rotating in on double-teams. But the more Illinois neutralized Johnson, the more Brown and Brent Darby found themselves free.
Cook (six points) ceased to be a factor after he picked up his fourth foul with nearly 19 minutes to go in the game and Cory Bradford (seven points) took only three shots all night. But behind Williams the Illini drew even at 43-43, 53-53 and 56-56 before he put them ahead 61-60 on a baseline jumper with one minute to go. However, 31 seconds later, Connolly crushed their hopes with his bomb.
“You have to get a stop like that to win a game like this,” Illinois coach Bill Self said, “and we didn’t. I thought we played real well defensively. I bet if you look at the tape the majority of shots Johnson made were probably pretty well-defended. But we didn’t get the stop.”
The Illini consoled themselves with the knowledge that by winning their last two games–against Iowa at the Assembly Hall on Saturday and at Minnesota on March 4–they still can claim a share of their first league title since 1998. The Illini, though, aren’t ready to settle for that just yet.
“We’re disappointed,” Sergio McClain said. “But there’s no reason to hang our heads. We played well. It all came down to one defensive stop that we didn’t make [on Connolly]. Give credit to Ohio State. They hit some good shots at the end. The ball just didn’t bounce our way this time. This will just make us more hungry. We still control our own destiny. We’d rather have something [co-championship] than nothing at all.”
