February 8, 2009

Associated Press

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Mike Davis scored 14 points and pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds Saturday, leading Illinois (No. 21 ESPN/USA Today, No. 23 AP) to a 66-48 victory over Purdue (No. 13, No. 12).

Demetri McCamey added 13 points for Illinois (19-5, 7-4 Big Ten), which never trailed while taking advantage of the absence of Purdue star Robbie Hummel to pull into a tie with Ohio State for second in the conference. Both teams are chasing Michigan State.

Hummel has been out with a hairline fracture in his back. He was cleared to play in the Boilermakers' loss to the Buckeyes on Tuesday, but still hasn't made it off the bench.

Illinois held Purdue (18-5, 6-4) to season lows in scoring, shooting percentage (32.2 percent) and 3-point shooting (2-of-15).

JaJuan Johnson scored 17 points to lead Purdue, while Lewis Jackson added 12.

The Illini pulled away late with a 23-6 run, a stretch of just over 10 minutes in which Purdue hit just one field goal.

But the Boilermakers, in spite of their offensive struggles, were never more than a couple of baskets and a defensive stop away from the Illini most of the afternoon.

Every brief Purdue run, though, was followed by a cold stretch and points from the Illini that revved their crowd up to earsplitting volumes.

Illinois opened the second half with a 9-4 run to go ahead 41-32, but Purdue rumbled right back with five straight points, including a crowd-calming dunk by Johnson, to pull to within 41-37.

Purdue went cold again midway through the second half, hitting just one field goal over a five-minute span. Illinois used that stretch to open a 12-point gap at 53-41 with just under eight minutes to play.

With their cold shooting, the Boilermakers were forced to look inside for openings that just weren't there. Without Hummel, Purdue's biggest inside threat, 6-foot-9 Namanja Calasan was just 1-of-7 on the afternoon.

Davis, on the other hand, thrived in the paint and outside.

The 6-9 Illinois sophomore had nine rebounds by halftime, and scored a half dozen of his points on soft jump shots.

Illinois' late run was keyed by seven points from Chester Frazier and six from Davis.

Frazier, an often-injured guard known for his defense, finished the game with 10 points.

Two of them, from under the basket and punctuated with a fist pump and a roar from the crowd, effectively finished the Boilermakers. The Illini went ahead 55-41 with 7:13 to play, and Purdue never again threatened.

Below is a recap of Illini head coach Bruce Weber's post game comments

Purdue stuck around for awhile but second half, you knocked them out for good.

Bruce Weber: Yeah, I feel bad for Robbie Hummel. He is a good player and a good person, you don't wish injuries, we went through that ourselves and that isn't fun to go through. We told them that they played Penn State to overtime, Ohio State to one possession and they weren't going to back down. In the first half, we had five layups where we could have done something and I am sure they feel the same way about some possessions. We talked about a toughness factor, when the game gets tough, do you wilt or do you keep going? We got shutouts, we won the MattO play hard chart and finally we made the layups. And we get the great individual performances and Mike Davis, I challenged him to average 13 rebounds the rest of the season. He got 16 today. When he wants to go to the board and exert himself, he should be able to get those types of numbers. Frazier did a great job on Moore, never let him get into rhythm. Just little things, Dominique off the bench, Calvin off the bench, good team effort, Trent finally made a few shots. Just a good team effort. We are back to playing as a team 21 assists, 11 turnovers, a few careless ones the first half. That is how we got to 18-5. I think we forgot that and now can we carry that to the road? Thursday and Saturday. We will have to see.

That first shot Trent Meacham took, you could almost feel 16,000 fans willing that shot in, they wanted that one to go in real bad.

Bruce Weber: He shot it very comfortable. Couple of his pull-ups, let the game come to you. We shot some shots that we aren't good at, aren't ours shots and we have been doing that on the road. We can't do that when we go to Northwestern and Indiana. You can take some questionable shots at home, miss some layups and still overcome it but not on the road. Yesterday's practice was one of the best we have had all year. It continued to the game, maybe because CBS was there, maybe because Westwood One radio was there, Eddie Johnson was there, talked to the team today. Practice intensity carried over today, hard fought Big Ten game we found a way to break it second half.

I thought one of the keys was how aggressive your team was going towards the basket.

Bruce Weber: Yes, they pressure so well, they get after you and are very physical. We had some turnovers. We said, 'guys, if you go to the basket, the officials will either call it or you will get by them and be able to kick it back out'. At the end of the half, we had five layups we didn't convert, we tried to over-do it, just get into the lane, ditch it to the bigs and they could make shots. Second half we did a better job of spacing, getting it to the shooters and they made shots.

Another big key was being up 12 with 7:51 left and keeping it there going into the stretch run.

Bruce Weber: We had some nice plays, a backdoor play where Chester got the layup and go, the lob play out of a timeout, steal a basket here and there and the basket starts looking bigger and you can make some tougher shots. That kind of broke their spirit. Great atmosphere, everyone was here at noon and hype up. I don't know if we can take 16,000 orange up to Evanston but they will have a lot of purple up there and they are playing well. I talked about toughness all year. A tough guy isn't a pounding the chest type of guy. It's the guy making the screen, taking a charge, also when you mess up, leaving that play behind and making the next play. We miss plays, guys it's over and guard them and I think today we did a little better job of keeping our poise. Now we have to put this one behind us, it was great, fun, enjoy it tonight and tomorrow everyone on campus will tell you how good you are. Gotta figure out that now we have to leave it behind and figure out how to play Northwestern on Thursday.

JaJaun Johnson for Purdue is quite a player.

Bruce Weber: Our big guys have improved quite a bit but Johnson has improved even more than them. I thought one of keys first half was that we couldn't control him. Second half I thought we did a little better job of controlling his dribble with our bigs. We also have to get help when those guys clear out. Johnson is a very, very good player, one of the better big guys in the league.

Great crowd, Eddie Johnson and Don Freeman being honored as Illini greats with the halftime ceremony.

Bruce Weber: And it was hot in here. I was sweating. It was great to have the guys back, I think we have to have a few more back but those jersey's are pretty impressive. Eddie spoke to the team before the team, a great player here, in the NBA. He is just a professional person. And he has done well besides basketball and I hope that is the message that got through to our players. That was great but we told them yesterday at practice, do your job and we will win. If it's rebounding, rebound, defense, play hard. Trent hadn't been hitting shots and that will happen but he also wasn't performing on the play hard chart and that is something he can change and today he did that. Do your job, do what the coaches say and we will have a chance, we are the bosses and do your job, we will be fine.