Box Score March 15, 2003
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By RICK GANO
AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO - Brian Cook's mere presence means everything to Illinois. When the Big Ten player of the year spends time on the bench with foul trouble, as he did Saturday, the Illini suffer.
When he's in the game, they're a very different team, one that's very difficult to beat.
Cook scored 25 points and made two free throws with 5.2 seconds left as the Illini withstood a late Indiana charge led by Tom Coverdale to beat the Hoosiers 73-72 in the Big Ten semifinals.
"Certainly we are not the same team without Brian, and today was a day when we needed him because our other guys weren't as good offensively in the past," Illinois coach Bill Self said.
Illinois (23-6) will play Ohio State on Sunday for the title and the automatic NCAA tournament bid. The surprising Buckeyes won their third straight Saturday, beating Michigan State 55-54.
"If they go down, it will have to be a good team to beat them because there are not many weaknesses on their team," Coverdale said of the Illini.
Indiana (20-12) probably assured itself an at-large NCAA berth, one year after making it to the national final.
Coverdale, booed throughout the game by a contingent of Illinois fans at the United Center, made a pair of 3-pointers in the final 6.7 seconds - the final one with four-tenths of a second to go - and nearly brought the Hoosiers back from a 16-point halftime deficit.
He scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half, making four 3-pointers.
"When you are in a tournament situation, that's what you have to do as a senior. You have to do everything you can for your team to win, and that's what I was doing," Coverdale said in a description that could also apply to Cook's contribution for the Illini.
Luther Head scored 16 for Illinois, while Indiana's Bracey Wright, who had to leave the game late in the first half after taking an elbow to the head, also had 16.
With Cook on the bench for more than six minutes after getting his second and third fouls early in the second half, the Hoosiers chopped the halftime lead to five. George Leach had seven points during a 16-7, run capped by Wright's 3-pointer.
But Cook's return sparked the Illini, and they appeared to pull away again. He had two quick baskets and a three-point play, and Sean Harrington and Head hit 3-pointers, putting the Illini up 55-42 with 7:14 left.
"My fouls were obviously dumb; they took me out of the game," Cook said.
Illinois was still ahead by 11 after Dee Brown's steal and three-point play with 2:53 to go, but Coverdale wouldn't let the Hoosiers slip away.
"This team has pushed the panic button a lot this year, but I thought Coverdale calmed the storm," Indiana coach Mike Davis said. "He's playing his best basketball."
He hit his second 3-pointer of the half with 1:58 left, cutting the lead to seven, and then it became a free-throw contest down the stretch.
Brown and Head each made one of two at the line around two misses from Wright, leaving Illinois ahead 71-66 with 13 seconds left.
Coverdale then sank a 3 to make it 71-69. Cook calmly hit two from the line around a timeout for a four-point lead before Coverdale made another 3-pointer just before the buzzer. This time, the Hoosiers couldn't foul again to stop the clock.
Illinois missed four of 10 free throws in the final 47 seconds.
"I think we played the dumbest we played all year down the stretch," Cook said.
Cook picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench with 2:44 left, but when teammate James Augustine fouled out, he returned for the final 67 seconds.
"I just wanted to make sure we had him down the stretch, which turned out to be pretty important," Self said.
The Illini went on a 17-2 run in the final 5:26 of the first half as Head scored nine points, including a 3-pointer just before the buzzer, and Cook had eight.
That gave the Illini a 37-21 lead at the end of a physical half that saw both of the Hoosiers' starting freshman guards, Wright and Marshall Strickland, leave the game after collisions.
Wright went to the locker room after catching an elbow to the head that left him woozy with 1:43 left. Strickland collided with Head while chasing a loose ball and got a cut on the side of his head. Head broke a tooth in the run-in that splattered the floor with blood with 21 seconds left.
Wright held an ice pack to his head before returning to the game with 14:16 left, and Strickland stayed on the bench for the entire second half.
