FINAL: Illinois 74, IU 72

After allowing Illinois to stick around the entire game, the IU men’s basketball team gave up an open lane to the basket off an in-bounds pass with 0.9 seconds left and the game tied.

Illinois’s Tyler Griffey laid it in as time expired to give the Fighting Illini a 74-72 victory to take down No. 1 IU in Champaign, Ill.

The Hoosiers broke open a double-digit lead late in the first half on the heels of an 18-5 run. IU finished the half up 41-29.

But as the second half opened up, IU couldn’t quite seal the win, keeping the game between six and 12 points for the majority of the half.

The Fighting Illini could never seem to get within a single possession, and it looked as though IU would come away with a narrow victory.

Illinois, though, used the 3-pointer late in the game to keep it close, as D.J. Richardson hit two in a row in the final two minutes to go along with a layup to tie the game at 70.

With the game tied at 72, IU had the ball with just a single second differential between the game clock and the shot clock, but junior guard Victor Oladipo lost control of the ball.

He saved the game for the moment with a block at the other end, giving Illinois the ball out of bounds with 0.9 seconds on the clock, but that was just enough time for Griffey to lay it in and seal the upset.

-Nathan Brown