Illinois at Iowa

This is my first trip to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and I must admit that it is a very nice place to see a game. The seats are all close to the court, and the pre game show was lots of fun.

Final score Illinois 57 Iowa 49.

Iowa misses the three point attempt, and McCamey hits a free throw.

Mike Tisdale with two clutch free throws. Iowa is giving it their all, and you have to hand it to them... this turning into a potential nightmare for the Illini in a hurry... that being said, the game isn't over yet. 54-49 with 34 seconds left.

Demetri McCamey just made a huuuuuge mistake... After grabbing an offensive rebound and getting a new shot clock, the junior attempted a half court alley oop and threw the ball into the crowd.

1:30 left, 3 point game. 52-49 Illini.

McCamey just held the ball until the shot clock got to under 6 again and missed a fade away.

Mike Davis with a great shot. He and Griffey have made two straight big shots.

Aaron Fuller shooting two. Makes them both, and it's back to a three point game.

Another foul on the Illini, and Iowa gets to the line again. This arena is like night and day the last 5 minutes compared to the first 30.

Tyler Griffey with a huge shot for a freshman.

Foul on the Illini, and Cole will shoot two. After making them both, it's a three point game, and the crowd is on their feet.

Cully Payne hits a three, and the gap has closed to 48-43 Illinois with 4 left.

Tisdale fouls Payne, and we are lucky that he didn't get shots out of it... NBA rules, and he would be shooting two.

48-40 Illinois with 5:45 left.

Iowa has the lead down to seven and with 6 minutes left, this is very much a game. The Iowa players came out with a lot of energy but fell asleep a little as the first half wound down... the energy is back, and you can see the fight in Lickliter's team again.

The Illini turn the ball over on a bad decision by McCamey. The shot clock got low, and he tried to break a double team, passed to Jeff Jordan with 2 left, and all we could get out of it was an air ball. My fear is that teams are jut going to start double teaming him under 8 seconds because he never seems to give up the ball.

The mood in the building is getting a little bit more intense. The Iowa fans are yelling at McCamey over exaggerating a foul, I think? On top of that I think the fans are just getting sick of the Orange Krush.

43-32 Illinois with 12:45 left in the game.

Tisdale got a raw deal on that foul call. His arm was locked up, and the Iowa player had him stuck in place.

Illinois leads this one 42-32 with 16 minutes left in the game.

Cully Payne just lobbed up a terrible shot... his second air ball of the game.

Iowa just isn't very smart with the basketball. There isn't a lot of ball movement once the first shot goes up... It's goes in or the rebound goes right back up... no one looks to reset.

McCamey took this game over for the last 2 minutes of play. Two straight pull up jumpers and a lay-up as the buzzer sounded give the Illini a little cushion. 35-27 at the half.

Mike Davis just broke away for a dunk and pointed up to the Krush to show some appreciation for the trip. 29-27 Illinois with 2 left.

McCamey just got called for a foul for reaching, and I'm wondering how he ended up guarding Brennan Cougill who comes in at 6'9" 255 lbs... I'm assuming the Illini were caught on a switch that didn't work out too well.

This has been an extremely quick first half. With 4:20 left, there have only been 3 fouls total.

Back to Back threes by D.J., and the Illini have their biggest lead of the game. 25-19.

Iowa is living and dying from the three point line. So far, well over half of their shots have come from deep and hitting 45% of them has kept them in the game. 19-19 with 6 left.

17-16 Illinois with 7:45 left.

The Illini need to keep going inside. Tisdale, Griffey, Davis... they are all getting open looks down low.

11-11 is the score with 11 left in the half. Iowa is turning the ball over a lot, and the Illini are missing shots. We need to capitalize early and pull away like Weber has been talking about.

7 minutes into the game, and we have a low scoring affair. The Illini have gotten plenty of open looks, they just aren't knocking them down.

Brandon Paul just elevated for a nice block, pinning the ball against the back board.

The Orange Krush has invaded Carver-Hawkeye. A few hundred or so members are taking up a huge section.

The Illini opened the game and controlled the action, but back to back threes by Matt Gatens have put Iowa up one.