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Wisconsin holds off slumping Illinois

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Photo by AP photo/John Dixon

Illinois' Demetri McCamey (32) guards Wisconsin's Jordan Taylor (11) in second-half NCAA college basketball game action at Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill., on Sunday, March 7, 2010. Wisconsin defeated Illinois 72-57.

CHAMPAIGN, IL. — Jordan Taylor and John Leuer each scored 20 points, and No. 15 Wisconsin beat Illinois 72-57 on Sunday to deal a significant blow to the Fighting Illini's NCAA tournament hopes.

Trevon Hughes added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Badgers (23-7, 13-5), who will be either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the Big Ten tournament. Illinois (18-13, 10-8) has dropped five of six and will be the No. 5 seed in Indianapolis.

Mike Tisdale led Illinois with 16 points and Bill Cole had 14.

Leuer and Hughes headed to the bench within about three minutes of each other midway through the half after picking up their fourth fouls. That gave the Illini, trailing 54-38 when joined Leuer on the bench with 10:41 left, a chance to crawl back into the game.

In the 2½ minutes they sat on the bench, Illinois cut a 14-point gap to nine, with Cole hitting two free throws at 8:29 to close within 54-43. A couple minutes later, Cole hit a 3-pointer with 7:30 left that made it 55-48.

Before the crowd had a chance to settle back into their seats, Davis stole the ball from Leuer, setting up a break that ended with a foul on Tisdale, sending the 7-1 center to the line for a pair of free throws that cut the lead to 55-50.

The Illini's comeback stalled there — Keaton Nankivil put back a free throw miss by Hughes with 5:27 to play to stretch the Badger lead back to 57-50, and over the next three possessions, the Badgers held Illinois to only a pair of free throws while extending the lead to 60-52.

The Badgers held the Illini to seven points over the last seven minutes. Illinois was 2-9 from the floor over that stretch and 16 of 45 (35.6 percent) for the game.

Wisconsin hit 41.9 percent of its shots (26 of 62).

Midway through the first half, Illinois looked like it might give the Badgers a run. The Illini fixed an early rebounding drought — one that allowed the Badgers to take almost twice as many shots as the Illini in the game's first 10 minutes — and took their first lead at 15-14 with 8:18 to play in the first half on a jump shot by Tisdale.

The teams traded leads four times over the 5 minutes before the Badgers pulled away again.