Shooting drought allows Illini to come back for late game victory

For the second-straight game, IU held a halftime lead. For the second-straight game, the Hoosiers gave it away. \nThis time they can blame it on their inability to make any field goals.\nIU (11-8, 5-3 Big Ten) converted on only 4-26 shots in the second half, 15.4 percent, to give away a seven-point halftime lead. Senior forward A.J. Moye scored IU's last field goal of the half with 9:53 to go.\n"I think the biggest thing is that if you go back and watch the tape, we got wide-open looks," IU coach Mike Davis said. "We got point-blank looks, wide-open looks, got penetration for passes and lay-ups. They did a great job once we got the ball. They really attacked us hard. I thought we shielded away from some things a little bit, but you couldn't ask for better looks than we got."\nIllinois (14-5, 5-3) held IU sophomore Bracey Wright to nine points on 2-10 shooting. Wright was averaging 20.4 points per game entering the contest. Illinois sophomore guard Deron Williams Wright's high school teammate and friend, guarded Wright most of the game. Williams said it was a team effort on Wright.\n"We just tried to deny him the ball, and not give him any good looks," Williams said. "He just had a bad shooting day."\nIt was a completely different story in the first half. IU came out hot and shot 50 percent from the field.\n"I think our defense and our pressure wore them down," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "They never got in a rhythm, shooting wise. Sitting on the bench, you can tell when shots have a chance and when they don't. Down the stretch, it didn't seem like many of their shots had a chance."\nWith the Hoosiers trailing by two with 11 seconds left, IU went to Wright, but Illinois' 7-foot-2 junior Nick Smith blocked him.\n"I was a good look for me," Wright said. "I saw him as I was coming off the screen, I saw him at the top. I knew if I got it, I was going to have to get it over him. He did a good job of not jumping out at me, but jumping straight up. He was too tall for me."\nThe Hoosiers were able to stay in contention in the second half because of their ability to hit from the free-throw line. IU was 13-14 in the second half from the stripe. The Hoosiers had plenty of chances down the stretch, but IU center, George Leach, missed several lay-ups, and Wright missed a wide-open three when the ball was tipped out.\n"George had a lot of opportunities on the inside he couldn't convert," Wright said. "Me and (IU sophomore guard) Marshall (Strickland) had a couple of looks on the outside that we didn't hit. A.J. had the one at the top of the key that came in and came out. We had a lot of in-and-outs from us, and a lot of balls that could have gone either way."\nIU ended up shooting 31 percent from the field for the game. Strickland led IU at the half with 10 points, but was limited to two free throws in the second.\n"I think our offense was working," Strickland said. "We can't ask the shots were anymore open than we were getting. We just couldn't knock them down today."\n-- Contact staff writer Tyler V. Hoeppner at thoeppne@indiana.edu.