MADISON — Illinois shined on offense again to ensure its spot in the top-four of the Big Ten standings and to clinch a double bye in the Big Ten tournament.
Wisconsin native Marcus Domask had a game-high 31 points while Terrence Shannon Jr. added 23 and the No. 13 Illini beat Wisconsin 91-83 on Saturday. Coleman Hawkins also added 13 points and seven rebounds while Jusitn Harmon had 10 points off the bench.
Wisconsin got in front early with a 12-0 run to take a 14-5 lead with 14:33 left in the first. Illinois responded with its own 12-0 run to take a six-point lead with 4:34 left in the first.
The Illini defense put together one of its better stretches in recent weeks, forcing a Badgers scoring drought of 3:54 during that run that helped the Illini take a two-point lead into the locker room at halftime. Shannon and Domask led the offense with 14 and 13 first-half points, respectively.
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After a surge at the beginning of the second half, the Illinois offense went cold while Wisconsin went on an 8-0 run to take two-point lead with 13:12 left after a layup by Tyler Wahl. The Illini had a scoring drought of 4:21 before Coleman Hawkins hit a triple with 12:52 to give them the lead back.
After the teams traded leads the next couple of minutes, Domask hit a triple and found Harmon for a backcut on consecutive possesions to push the Illinois lead to 66-59 with 8:17 left.
The Illini kept the lead by getting a couple more key buckets from Domask and getting enough key stops late.
Next, Illinois hosts No. 2 Purdue at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in a battle between the first- and second-place teams in the Big Ten. Purdue would clinch the conference title with a win.