Box Score March 9, 2001
Box Score
Illini Wrap, Audio version
Illini Wrap, Video version
Big Ten Tourney Audio
By RICK GANO
AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO - Frank Williams can shoot, score, handle the ball and defend.
Still, his most important role for No. 4 Illinois is getting his teammates
involved.
When Williams distributes the ball, the balanced Illini are tough to beat.
"Frank is a true point guard who can score, but our team is usually best
when he doesn't have to," Illinois coach Bill Self said Friday after Williams
led an 83-66 rout of Purdue in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.
"He reads situations well and today was a day he didn't have to get his own
shots. So he focused on creating for others," Self added.
Williams scored 13 points and dished out a season-best 11 assists. Illinois'
depth did the rest.
Marcus Griffin scored 14 points, and Cory Bradford and Sean Harrington 13
apiece for the top-seeded Illini. Brian Cook added 10 points, and he and
Griffin grabbed nine rebounds each.
The Illini (24-6) will play Indiana in Saturday's semifinals. The Hoosiers
beat No. 23 Wisconsin 64-52 earlier Friday.
"We shared the ball as well as have in a long time," Self said. "We got
really good play early and that led to a comfortable halftime lead."
Williams, who played 30 minutes without a turnover, showed why he was the
league's player of the year during a 16-5 first-half run that put the Illini in
command.
After Cook made a sweeping hook shot from his hip, Williams hit an
off-balance fallaway jumper from the side of the lane.
Then, following Bradford's third 3-pointer of the half, Williams came up
with beautiful back-to-back passes to Damir Krupalija, who dunked on the first
and hit a layup on the second to help the Illini build a 16-point lead.
Just to show how in control he was, Williams picked up the ball in the
second half after he'd been fouled and, without looking, flipped it over his
head and straight into the basket. The shot brought the crowd to its feet, even
though play had been stopped and the bucket didn't count.
"My guys made shots," Williams said. "We made them early and kept our
momentum up. And we just took it on from there. We're a running team and we
haven't been doing that much lately. It's time to get back to that and we did
it today."
Harrington, who led the Big Ten in 3-point shooting at 46 percent, and
Bradford, who earlier in the season had his NCAA record of consecutive games
with a 3-pointer stopped at 88, connected on three treys apiece in the first
half as Illinois took a 47-33 lead.
Harrington said getting open is easy when Williams is handling the ball.
"When you least expect him to find you open, he does. He has great eyes and
great court vision," Harrington said.
The Boilermakers (15-14) will now await a call from the NIT, their string of
eight straight NCAA tournament appearances almost certainly over.
Purdue's Maynard Lewis, who scored a career-high 22 points in an
opening-round win over Minnesota, was held to five. Joe Marshall led Purdue
with 13 points as the Boilermakers shot just 35 percent.
"We didn't get back on defense," Marshall said. "Their effort proves why
they're the No. 4 team in the country. They were hot from the outside and we
didn't play good defense, the kind that makes them work. You are going to lose
every time that way."
Boilermakers coach Gene Keady was hit with a technical foul six minutes into
the game when he became incensed after a foul call on Purdue following a
scramble for the ball.
Illinois led by one at the time and then went on a 10-3 run.
But it wouldn't have mattered. The Boilermakers just weren't up to handling
the Illini.
"Nobody played with passion," Keady said.
