Badgers stifle Michigan offense

Illinois upset No. 17 Purdue in overtime.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

INDIANAPOLIS — No. 8 Wisconsin takes such pride in its defense, the Badgers actually get mad when their opponent makes a basket.

They had to be downright giddy after this one.

Joe Krabbenhoft scored 12 points, Michael Flowers put on a defensive clinic and the Badgers made Michigan work for every one of its rare baskets Friday in a 51-34 victory that was the lowest-scoring game in Big Ten tournament history.

“What we do starts with our defense,” Krabbenhoft said. “Every single little bucket they get, we’re upset because we know defensively we’re that good. We can stop them every time.”

Well, maybe not every time, but pretty darn close.

The Badgers held the ninth-seeded Wolverines (10-22) to a lowly 20 percent from the floor, and Michigan finished with more turnovers (14) than field goals (10). Michigan’s 34 points were the fewest ever for a single game in the 11-year history of the Big Ten tournament, and the final score “beat” the 89 scored by Michigan and Minnesota in the first round last year.

Leading scorer Manny Harris didn’t look like the same player who scored a career-high 26 at Wisconsin in January and nearly led Michigan to an upset, and Flowers can take credit for that. A member of the Big Ten’s all-defensive team, he was relentless in his defense of Harris and never let him take an easy shot.

“Nobody ever wants to get scored on, and that’s what I pride myself on is really stopping my opponent and causing him havoc and just disrupting the flow of his game,” Flowers said. “Doing that ultimately benefits my team.”

Harris finished with only four points on 1-of-12 shooting, and had more turnovers and fouls (three each) than field goals. Anthony Wright led the Wolverines with 11 points, and reserve Zack Gibson finished with nine.

“Wisconsin certainly did a great job defensively against us today,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “They’ve done that. We’re not the lone rangers in this. I was really proud of the way we defended. ... We held a very veteran team to a low score, but we could not throw the ball in the ocean today.”

It was Wisconsin’s eighth straight win, and its 21st in the last 23 games. The Badgers (27-4) will play No. 19 Michigan State in today’s semifinals.

Illinois 74,
No. 17 Purdue 67, OT

INDIANAPOLIS — It was easy for Purdue coach Matt Painter to summarize why Illinois surprised his team in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.

“We lost this game because Demitri McCamey was special.”

McCamey scored 26 points to lead Illinois to the overtime win. The freshman guard made 9 of 14 field goals and all six of his 3-point shots for the 10th-seeded Fighting Illini.

McCamey left Purdue’s collective stomachs and NCAA tournament seed sinking.

“Every time he made a big shot, you just get that bad feeling inside you like, ‘Dang, he made another one,’ ” Purdue guard E’Twaun Moore said. “We just needed to stop it, and we didn’t.”

Shaun Pruitt added 14 points and nine rebounds for Illinois (15-18), which advanced to play either No. 22 Indiana or Minnesota today.