Illinois gets rare road win

March 1, 2008
John Brumbaugh

shaun_pruitt_clapping.jpgMaybe it was because Illinois had been off since last Saturday’s loss at Michigan. Maybe it was because Bruce Weber stopped emphasizing the Illini’s poor free-throw shooting in practice. Who knows, maybe it’s because the snow is melting in Champaign.

Whatever the reason, Illinois played the kind of game it had been expected to play all season in Saturday’s 58-47 victory over Iowa.

“We came out and played with a lot of heart,” freshman forward Mike Davis said. “We were all on the same page, nobody was yelling at each other.”

The victory, which ended a three-game losing streak and was only the Illini’s second Big Ten road win, was a mixture of what might have been this season for the 10th-place Illini (12-17, 4-12) and what might be next season.

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