March 10, 2000

Postgame Audio:
Coach Kruger

Bradford's Gamewinner Video!
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CHICAGO - The final seconds of the game ticking down, Cory Bradford caught the ball and squared up behind the 3-point line.

His cold shooting hand didn't cross his mind. Neither did his endangered streak of 59 straight games with at least one 3-pointer. He saw the basket, gripped the ball, squared up and let it fly.

Swish.

With 1.4 seconds left, Bradford found his shooting touch, saved his 3-pointer streak and gave the No. 25 Illini a 72-69 victory over No. 18 Indiana on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament.

"I wasn't worrying about my streak, I was worrying about a winning streak. All I wanted was for that one to go in," said Bradford, who has made a 3-pointer in all 60 of his games at Illinois.

Indiana's A.J. Guyton gave a desperation heave at the buzzer, but it didn't get anywhere close to the basket.

As the final buzzer sounded, the fourth-seeded Illini (20-8) rushed the floor. They'll play the winner of the Penn State-Ohio State game in Saturday's semifinals.

Fifth-seeded Indiana (20-8) went home to await an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

"It really wasn't easy today and we knew it wasn't going to be," Illinois coach Lon Kruger said. "But for this team to hang in there and get a tough win like that is really satisfying. It's tough, but satisfying."

Indiana took a 67-64 lead with 2:41 left on a pair of free throws and a jumper from Kirk Haston. Bradford, who struggled all day from the field, went up for a 3-pointer and was fouled by Guyton.

Bradford missed the first free throw but made the second two to make it a one-point game. He then fouled Jeffrey Newton, who made both free throws to put Indiana ahead 69-66 with 1:16 left.

After a timeout, Brian Cook converted a three-point play to tie it at 69 with 51 seconds left.

The Hoosiers were looking for Guyton, the Big Ten's leading scorer, on their last possession, but he could never get open. Instead, the ball went to Haston, who missed a 3-pointer.

"Once it got down to eight seconds on the shot clock and they didn't have the ball in A.J.'s hands, I was just going to make sure it didn't get in A.J.'s hands," Sergio McClain said.

Frank Williams grabbed the rebound, and Illinois called a timeout with 7.3 seconds left. When the Illini went back on the court, McClain inbounded the ball to Cook.

Cook gave it right back to him, and he drove the baseline before kicking it out to a wide-open Bradford on the left side.

"I didn't have a choice but to take that shot," said Bradford, who finished with 12 points despite going 3-of-13 from the field. "I wasn't thinking about anything. I had a couple of shots that looked good but didn't fall. This one felt good as soon as I shot it."

For Guyton, very little all day felt good. He had 13 points on 5-of-20 shooting.

"I had a bad shooting night," he said. "I've had a pretty good season and I knew a bad shooting night would come sooner or later. I wish it didn't happen tonight.

"We had a chance to win at the end of the game but we didn't capitalize. It was all the intangible things. We had a chance to get a defensive stop. We didn't chase down a loose ball. We fouled a guy on a 3-point shot. Those are some of the things that got us beat."

Cook led the Illini with 18 points. McClain and Frank Williams each had eight points.

Haston finished with 16 points for the Hoosiers and Newton had 14, all in the second half.

Illinois and Indiana had played just two weeks ago, but the only resemblance between the two games was the team names on the uniforms. Illinois raced out to a 52-28 halftime lead on its way to an 87-63 rout two weeks ago, and the 24-point victory was Illinois' largest over a ranked team in Lon Kruger's four seasons as head coach.

This time, Indiana served notice from the start things would be different. Michael Lewis took the opening tip and sprinted for the Indiana basket, and the Hoosiers didn't slow down the rest of the game.

Except for occasional spurts here and there, it was a close game the entire way. Neither team shot particularly well, with the Hoosiers 37 percent from the floor and Illinois 43 percent.

Indiana gave up 16 points on 18 turnovers, and Illinois had 14 turnovers.

As if losing wasn't bad enough, Indiana coach Bob Knight picked up a technical with 9:04 left in the first half for arguing a call.

"The referee told me to relax," Knight said. "I said, `Don't tell me to relax.' Technical foul. It was one of the worst technical fouls I've had. And I've had a few."