Illinois lived by Brian Cook’s talent all season, but in the first round of the NCAA West Regional at the RCA Dome on Thursday night, the Illini (25-6) almost faded from his excused absences.
The Big Ten tournament champs barely hung on, holding off upstart Western Kentucky, 65-60.
Cook finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out. Dee Brown added 16 points.
Deron Williams added 11 points and James Augustine 10. Nate Williams paced the Hilltoppers (24-9) with 17 points but star point guard Patrick Sparks was held to only six, missing 11 of 13 his attempts.
Dee Brown’s three-point play only 70 seconds into the second half gave Illinois a 34-28 lead and the Illini seemed ready to pull away when a crucial foul on Cook–his third of the game–sent him to the bench with 18:34 to go.
The score was tied 41-41, 43-43, 48-48 and 50-50. With 4:00 left it was Illinois 59, Western Kentucky 55. A James Augustine layup put the Illini up 61-55 with 3:39 left and two Cook free throws made it 63-55 with 2:47 remaining.
But then Cook was whistled for his fourth and fifth fouls in a two-second span. His fifth foul was on David Boyden but Boyden missed the front end of a one-and-one. Williams then made a dunk with 1:39 remaining and after Deron Williams missed a mini-jumper at the other end, Boyden’s three from the top of the key cut the deficit to 63-60 with :56 left.
Two Dee Brown free throws made it 65-60 with :22.8 left .
The Best of the West
Wildcats 80, ‘Mounts 51
Thanks to a snowstorm, Vermont spent more time in the Denver airport than it did in the NCAA tournament as No. 1 seed Arizona dumped the No. 16 Catamounts in their first NCAA tournament appearance in 103 years of playing basketball.
Salim Stoudamire had 18 points and shot 4-of-8 on 3-pointers for Arizona.
Jayhawks 64, Aggies 61
One year after surviving a scare against 16th-seeded Holy Cross, No. 2 seed Kansas held on to beat No. 15 seed Utah State, which missed two 3-point tries in the final 10 seconds.
Keith Langford scored 22 points and Nick Collison had 18 for the Jayhawks. Desmond Penigar had 25 points for Utah State.
Devils 67, Rams 57
Dahntay Jones scored 23 points and freshman Shelden Williams scored four clutch points in the final 90 seconds as No. 3 seed Duke held on late.
Matt Nelson scored 21 points to lead No. 14 seed Colorado State.
