Ohio St., Illinois advance to Big Ten title game
Duane Washington Jr. scored 24 points and E.J. Liddell added 18 and No. 9 Ohio State fended off a frantic finish from No. 4 Michigan for a 68-67 victory Saturday and a chance to play for the Big Ten Tournament title.
The Buckeyes (21-8) will play their fourth game in four days against either No. 3 Illinois or No. 5 Iowa on Sunday. Ohio State has won four tourney crowns, its most recent coming in 2013.
Michigan (20-4) was led by Hunter Dickinson with 21 points and eight rebounds and managed to cut a 13-point deficit to one in the final 4 ½ minutes. But after a third consecutive Buckeyes turnover in the final 90 seconds, Mike Smith’s long jumper with 2 seconds left bounced off the back of the rim and time expired in the scramble for the loose ball.
The Wolverines, the league’s regular-season champs, had reached each of the past three championship games before last year’s tourney was canceled because of COVID-19.
Both teams played short-handed.
Michigan announced before the game that guard-forward Isaiah Livers would be out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right foot. Livers was scoreless in 15 minutes in Friday’s victory over Maryland.
Forward Kyle Young, who missed most of the second half Friday after getting hit in the head with an inadvertent elbow against Purdue, sat out for the Buckeyes.
NO. 3 ILLINOIS 82, NO. 5 IOWA 71
Kofi Cockburn scored 18 of his 26 points in the first half, and No. 3 Illinois beat No. 5 Iowa 82-71 on Saturday to advance to the Big Ten Tournament title game.
The Fighting Illini (22-6) have won six straight, with three coming against top-10 foes. If Illinois wins one more, against No. 9 Ohio State, it would claim its first tourney title since 2005.
Ayo Dosunmu scored 18 points for Illinois, and reserve guard Andre Curbelo finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Luka Garza had 21 points and 12 rebounds for Iowa (21-7). Jordan Bohannon
scored 20 points.
It didn’t the Illini long to impress an enthusiastic fan base that made the short trip to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
A 9-0 run midway through the first half gave Illinois a 22-14 lead that it never surrendered. The Illini still led 45-37 at the half then opened the second half on an 8-2 spurt that featured two big baskets from Jacob Grandison.
Iowa couldn’t get closer than five rest of the way.
Trinity Barcless (Notre Dame) totaled six points on five goals and one assist in a sweep for Stevenson women’s ice hockey over Lebanon Valley.
The sensational week saw Barcless being named the MAC Player of the Week and she was also named the United Collegiate Hockey Conference Co-Player of the Week.
Barcless netted her second career hat trick while also dishing out an assist in a 7-1 win.
The talented Barcless followed that game up with the game-tying goal with 2:21 remaining before netting the overtime winner, shorthanded, with 2:24 remaining.
Barcless has a team-high six goals and three assists for the 5-1 Mustangs.
Muller Has Successful Start to Season
Rutgers opened the baseball season against Indiana, and Kyle Muller (Steinert) pitched a solid inning of relief for the Scarlet Knights.
Now a graduate student, Muller worked around a leadoff single by Indiana to preserve Rutgers’ 2-1 lead.
Local Players Lead TCNJ to Season Opener
Ali Natalicchio (Notre Dame) was in the goal for The College of New Jersey in a season-opening 18-4 win over Cabrini. Natalicchio had seven saves and allowed four goals.
Sabrina Phillips (Notre Dame) had seven draw controls and four ground balls. Nikki Phillips (Notre Dame) and Kileigh Pfluger (Hopewell Valley) started on defense for the Lions.
Also, Morgan Vaccaro (Allentown) made her collegiate debut for the Lions.
Baseball: Jake Babuschak (Northern Burlington) pitched two innings for Sacred Heart in the final game of a weekend series with St. John’s. Babuschak allowed one run and struck out three. … Robbie Buecker (Notre Dame) pitched three innings for Army in a loss to Air Force and allowed two earned runs . ... Sam Ruta (Pennsbury) was 2-for-3 in Army’s loss to Austin Peay . ... Tim Irons (Rancocas Valley) was 1-for-4 for Clarion in a loss to Seton Hill. …Kyle Lysy (Allentown) pitched five innings and allowed just one run while striking out five for Shippensburg.
Field Hockey: Tess Maloney (Lawrenceville) and Nikki Trzaska (Yardley/VJM) were on the field for
Ohio State in the 1-0 loss to Rutgers.
Men’s Lacrosse: Coby Auslander (Princeton Day) has three goals and two assists for Christopher Newport . ... Eric Broadway (Pennington) had a goal for Albright in a game with DeSales. Steven Gazdek, the son of former Steinert AD Steve Gazdek, was on defense for Albright.
Men’s Soccer: Vincenzo Pugliese (WW-P North) has been in all five of Rutgers’ games in the midfield. Women’s Basketball: Erika Porter (Notre Dame) had four points for Illinois in a win over Minnesota. …Jayda Bing (Steinert) had eight points and 10 rebounds for FDU-Florham in a game with Misericordia.
Women’s Lacrosse: Marin Hartshorn (Allentown) had two goals and two assists for Rutgers in a pair of weekend losses to Michigan. …Aimee Uibel (Rancocas Valley) had eight saves in the net for St. Mary’s (MD) in a win over Shenandoah. … Erin Olenchalk (Notre Dame) was on defense for Stevenson in a win over Hood. …Shannon Dudeck (Hun) was in the starting lineup for Holy Cross for the season opener.
Women’s Soccer: Julia Faranetta (Lawrence) started on defense for St. Mary’s (MD) in a loss to Southern Virginia.