EVANSTON—Once the shock wore off and the sting went away, Tre Demps had little doubt Northwestern would pull out the victory.Bryant McIntosh scored 18 points and the Wildcats ended a 10-game losing streak with a 66-61 overtime win over Iowa after the Hawkeyes’ Jarrod Uthoff nailed a 3 at the end of regulation on Sunday afternoon.Demps scored 16 and Alex Olah had 11 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks and the Wildcats (11-14, 2-10 Big Ten) regrouped after Uthoff forced OT with a huge, contested shot.

”First reaction, it feels kind of like a knife into my heart,” Demps said. ”But I think Coach (Chris Collins) did a great job lifting our spirits up so we could battle for another five minutes.”

Uthoff, who scored a career-high 25 points for Iowa (15-10, 6-6), nailed a long off-balance 3 from the wing at the end of regulation even though Vic Law was all over him. But the Wildcats scored seven straight in overtime, ending their longest slide since they dropped 12 in a row in the 1999-2000 season.Northwestern was trailing 57-55 when Demps scored on a layup with 3:15 left to start the decisive rally. He fed Scottie Lindsey for a layup to put the Wildcats ahead with 1:29 left.Two free throws by McIntosh made it 62-57 with 42 seconds remaining, and following a layup by Uthoff, the Hawkeyes came away empty-handed after Mike Gesell stole the ball from Demps.Lindsey blocked a layup by Aaron White, and Alex Olah hit two free throws to make it 64-59 with 19 seconds remaining. But Iowa wasn’t quite finished.A put-back by Gabriel Olaseni cut the lead to three with eight seconds left before Dave Sobolewski hit two free throws.Then, Olah rebounded a missed 3 by Gesell in the closing seconds and the Wildcats hung on. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery ran over to the referees as they were walking off the court and gestured at them. He declined comment on the officiating, but Uthoff thought a few more fouls probably should have been called against Northwestern.

”I know I got fouled a couple of times and it looked like White and (Adam) Woodbury got fouled, but I can’t tell you for sure until I watch the film,” Uthoff said.

The victory was the first for Northwestern since a win at Rutgers in the conference opener on Dec. 30.The Wildcats found the touch from the outside, hitting 9 of 20 3-pointers after making just 3 of 15 in Tuesday’s blowout loss to Michigan State. Demps hit 4 of 7 from long range.The Hawkeyes’ NCAA hopes took a significant hit with another loss to Northwestern. They also fell to the Wildcats in the first round of last year’s Big Ten tournament after pounding them twice by 26.

”We need to finish out the season with all wins,” said Uthoff, who hit 8 of 16 shots and five 3-pointers. ”This is a tough loss.”

White was just 1 of 12 with six points, and the Hawkeyes shot just 32.3 percent.Even so, Iowa nearly pulled this one out thanks to a thrilling finish in regulation.After a timeout by the Wildcats, Gesell drove up to the right and handed off to Uthoff, who managed to bury an off-balance 3 from the wing as time expired even though Law gave him no room.As tough as that shot was for the Wildcats, Collins liked his players’ response.

”We stayed positive and we said we’re gonna let this go. We got so far, we’re gonna finish this game,” Olah said.

NOTES—The Hawkeyes are 3-3 in Big Ten road games…..The Collins family goes way back with McCaffery, to when he was playing at Penn in the early 1980s and Doug Collins was an assistant there. Chris Collins was a ballboy. ”I hated it because they had a tradition at Penn,” Chris said. ”The first basket, they just crushed the floor with all these streamers, and I had to go out there for 10 minutes and clean up streamers. He was laughing at me as a college kid.”….NU visits Minnesota on Wednesday.

MADISON—Frank Kaminsky started hot for Wisconsin, then Bronson Koenig and Nigel Hayes finished off Illinois.Kaminsky had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and the fifth-ranked Badgers won 68-49 on Sunday to clinch the best start in school history.Kaminsky hit eight of his first nine shots on his way to 17 first-half points, but was then held scoreless for more than 16 minutes. But Koenig and Hayes combined to score 23 points in the second half as Wisconsin (23-2, 11-1 Big Ten) put the game away.

”Our guys really don’t go out there and say, `OK, let’s make sure Frank gets his X number of points and then we’ll go get ours,”’ coach Bo Ryan said. ”We took what they gave us. That’s all we ever do.”

Koenig finished with 15 points, and Hayes added 14.Illinois (17-9, 7-6) started the game hot, and four 3-pointers in just more than three minutes infuriated Ryan. Wisconsin responded by clamping down on defense.The Illini then missed seven of their last eight shots in the half, and the Badgers sandwiched a 20-4 run around halftime. Illinois got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.

”It just goes to show you that we can beat you in a lot of different ways,” Kaminsky said.

Malcolm Hill scored 15 points and Rayvonte Rice added 10 to lead Illinois, which had won four straight.The Illini had held all four opponents to under 60 points and 40 percent shooting. But of those teams, only Michigan State ranks in the top half of the Big Ten in scoring average.Illinois coach John Groce said he was most disappointed that his team was outrebounded 32-25 and allowed Wisconsin to turn 15 offensive rebounds into 12 points.

”Now you’ve got to sit down and guard them again,” Groce said. ”They’re already the No. 1 offensive efficiency team in the last 17 years of analytics, so it would be preferable to guard them one time, instead of multiple times in a trip down the floor.”

NOTES—The last time the Illini defeated a top-five team on the road was March 5, 1989, when Nick Anderson’s 35-footer at the buzzer led Illinois past No. 3 Indiana 70-67. … Rice had averaged 21.5 points and nine rebounds in his games against Wisconsin last season…..Josh Gasser will need at least one more game to become only the second player in school history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists. He came into Sunday needing 10 points to accomplish the feat but was held to three points on 1-of-5 shooting. Michael Finley finished his Wisconsin career with 2,147 points, 648 rebounds and 371 assists…..Rice was a bit better Sunday than he was Thursday against Michigan, his first action after missing nine games because of injury and suspension. Rice, who wore a wrap on his non-shooting hand, was 4 of 12 from the field, including 1 of 5 from the 3-point line. In Thursday’s win, he had four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

PEORIA—Earl Peterson made a key layup with 13 seconds left as Loyola held on to beat Bradley 58-53 on Sunday.Devon Turk drained his second 3 to give Loyola a 53-47 lead with 3:43 to play. Bradley scored the next six points, capped by Nate Wells’ jumper to tie it at 53 with :44 left.Peterson answered with a layup, but Bradley’s Tramique Sutherland missed his layup on the other end. Christian Thomas split a pair of free throws and Julius Rajala hit a jumper to seal it for the Ramblers.Thomas scored 13 points and Ben Richardson chipped in 11 to lead Loyola (16-10, 6-8 Missouri Valley).Josh Cunningham scored 13 points, Sutherland had 12 points and Wells added 10 for Bradley (8-19, 3-11), which shot just 17 of 46 overall (37 percent).

CLEVELAND—Anton Grady matched a career-high with six blocks, and added nine points with 13 rebounds to help Cleveland State beat UIC 67-59 on Sunday.Cleveland State (16-11, 10-3 Horizon League) bounced back after a one-point loss at Detroit on Friday night to remain in second place in the league, a game back of Valparaiso (24-4, 11-2).Trey Lewis scored 18 points and Marlin Mason added 11, and Charlie Lee dished out eight assists for Cleveland State.Ahman Fells drained three consecutive 3-pointers to pull the Flames within 60-56 with 2:22 remaining. Cleveland State answered with a pair of Lee free throws and a Mason dunk to give the Vikings an eight-point lead with 1:33 to play, and the Flames then missed six of their last seven field goals.Fells scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Paris Burns finished with 17 points and five assists for UIC (7-20, 3-9).

Derrick Rose drove hard to the rim and heard those familiar ”MVP! MVP!” chants from the crowd. The star point guard was in top form, and so were the Bulls.Rose scored 30 points, and the Bulls handed Cleveland just its second loss in 16 games, beating the Cavaliers 113-98 Thursday night.Pau Gasol added 18 points and 10 rebounds. Tony Snell scored 22, helping offset a 31-point performance by LeBron James, and Bulls sent another strong signal that their recent struggles might be behind them.They won their fourth straight after dropping 10 of 15 and entered the All-Star break with a 1 1/2-game lead in the Central division over the Cavaliers. Leading the way was their former MVP point guard, a player who missed most of the previous two seasons because of injuries to each knee.

”I’m just letting my game come to me,” Rose said. ”That’s all I’m doing.

I’m being patient with the ball. … I’m trying to read the defense and pass the ball to the right people that are open.”
Is he happy with the way he’s playing?

”Yes, very pleased,” Rose said.

The Bulls led most of the way against the NBA’s hottest team and pulled away in the fourth quarter.Both teams were missing key players, with Jimmy Butler nursing a strained right shoulder and Cleveland’s Kevin Love out with an abrasion in his right eye. But the Bulls did enough to come out on top.Rose was aggressive from the start, going right at the rim, and finished two points shy of his season high.Gasol posted his 14th straight double-double, the longest streak by a Bulls player since Michael Jordan’s 15-game run in 1988-89.Snell came up big again after scoring a career-high 24 against Sacramento on Tuesday. He shot 9 of 11 for the second straight game and helped force eight turnovers by James.Joakim Noah added 10 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists, and Taj Gibson scored 13.For Cleveland, it was a lethargic showing coming off a victory over Miami the previous night. Even so, 14 wins in 16 games isn’t a bad way to go into the break.

”We can go into the break feeling good about our chances going forward and with the knowledge there are several things we can improve on and do better,” coach David Blatt said. ”That’s a good place to be.”
James had little help with Love sidelined after getting accidentally poked in the eye by the Heat’s Mario Chalmers, and his high turnover total only made things worse.

”I’ll figure it out. That cannot happen, for sure, for us to win long term,” James said.

Kyrie Irving had 17 points and seven assists but was 6 of 18 from the field. Timofey Mozgov added 13 points and 11 rebounds.Up by seven at halftime, the Bulls scored the first eight points of the third quarter to increase their lead to 63-48.The Cavaliers made a run late in the period, closing within eight on James Jones’ 3 in the closing seconds. But Rose drove left and cut between two defenders for a neat reverse layup just before the buzzer, drawing loud cheers from the crowd and sending the Bulls to the fourth quarter with an 87-77 lead.

NOTES—The Bulls were up 105-86 after Rose’s 19-footer with just under five minutes remaining…..”Good attitude. We started the game well,” Gasol said. ”We set the tone early. We played (well) defensively. We were aggressive for the most part. I saw a good approach to the game and a good performance.”…..Noah on James’ eight turnovers: ”The Snelly Cat was all over the place. Snelly Cat was huge.”….Cavaliers: James had four assists, giving him 6,118 in his career and putting him in sole possession of second place on the NBA’s all-time list among forwards. He came in tied with John Havlicek but now trails only Scottie Pippen, who had 6,135….Butler expects to play in Sunday’s All-Star game but will sit out the Skills Challenge, agent Happy Walters said.

CHAMPAIGN—Down by three to Michigan late Thursday night, Illinois needed the ball and they needed a basket.Rayvonte Rice pulled down a tough rebound, providing the ball, and Kendrick Nunn found the basket – a 3-pointer to tie the game at 50 and force overtime.From there, the Illini made it look easy, finishing on a 21-2 run and dominating the overtime in a 64-52 win.It was a fourth-straight win for Illinois (17-8, 7-5 Big Ten), trying to write itself back into the post-season script after a series of injuries and off-court issues that left them short-handed.Illinois’ late jolt, starting with Michigan up 50-43 with just over three minutes left in regulation, was a product of grit, Illini coach John Groce said.

”When there’s three minutes to go and you’re down by seven, you’ve got to go now,” Groce said. ”To close the game on a 21-2 run, it wasn’t necessarily about execution, it was about heart.”

It was the fourth straight loss for the stunned Wolverines (13-12, 6-7). Coach John Beilein said his team just lacked the depth and talent to hold on for a whole game.

”We’re not great at anything right now, and sometimes that gets exposed in games,” Beilein said.

Nunn’s 21 points led Illinois.The Illini trailed the Wolverines much of the night but scored the final seven points of regulation and willed the game to overtime with tough defense.From there Nunn scored four of Illinois’ first six overtime points. The first two gave the Illini their first lead since the first half, 52-50. The second two all but put the game out of reach of the reeling Wolverines, 56-50.Rice played for the first time since Jan. 3. He had been out with a broken hand and a suspension for an unspecified violation of team rules. He scored just 4 points but had a key steal to send the game to overtime.One question for Illinois was how Rice would fit back into a lineup that’s learned to live – and win – without him.Rice is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 17.2 points. In his absence, the Illini went 6-3, and Malcolm Hill and Nunn picked up the scoring slack.

”I thought he tried to fit in and help us win, and boy did he do that,” Groce said.

Illinois guard Aaron Cosby, suspended with Rice Jan. 31, remains suspended, Groce said.Starting with Nunn’s free throws and a bucket from center Nnanna Egwu, his first points of the night, the Illini owned the overtime.They outscored Michigan 14-2 over those final five minutes, energizing a loud, sellout crowd and stunning the Wolverines.Michigan’s only overtime points came on a pair of free throws by Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman with 13 seconds to play.Ahmad Starks scored 12 points, nine of them in Illinois’ 20-point first half, when few of his Illini teammates could hit much of anything. Hill added 11 and Egwu had a game-high 12 rebounds and four blocks.Albrecht led Michigan with 13 points. Max Bielfeldt added 12 off the bench. The Wolverines got 21 bench points.Michigan: Entering play Thursday, Michigan had won eight straight against Illinois, including three in a row in Champaign.In nine games without Rice, Hill and Nunn scored 52.9 percent of Illinois’ points.Both teams had far different looks on the court Thursday than they did for Michigan’s 73-65 overtime win in their last meeting, Dec. 30 at Ann Arbor. Illinois’ Rayvonte Rice and Aaron Cosby combined for 15 points and 13 rebounds in 65 minutes in that game. Michigan’s Derrick Walton Jr. and Caris LeVert had 19 points and nine boards between them in their combined 69 minutes that day.Groce’s statement on Cosby before the game said the junior transfer was still part of the team but raised questions about his future. Groce said he’d told Cosby to ”take some time away from basketball this week.” Groce said he planned to talk with Cosby next week to ”evaluate his role in helping our team achieve its goals.” Illinois travels to No. 5 Wisconsin on Sunday.

DAYTON—Jay Harris scored 25 points and hit four 3-pointers and UIC held off a second-half surge by Wright State to win 79-75 Thursday night to tie the Raiders for seventh place in the Horizon League.Paris Burns scored 21 points, including four 3-pointers, Ahman Fells added 17, and the Flames (7-19, 3-8) hit 11 of 17 from long distance and made 20 of 26 free throws.UIC led 45-30 at halftime, but Wright State gained ground on a 21-12 run in the second half to pull within one. Wright State’s Justin Mitchell hit a go-ahead layup, but UIC rallied to tie it at 63 with 3:20 left. UIC’s Tai Odiase hit two free throws for a 67-64 lead, then Harris made two free throws and the Flames led 74-67 with 24 seconds left.Grant Benzinger scored a career-high 23 for Wright State (11-14, 3-8), Michael Karena a career-high 21 and Mitchell 15.

The Vancouver Canucks had just blown a two-goal lead when the puck dropped for overtime. The Blackhawks had all the momentum, and were looking for an unlikely victory.That’s when the Sedin brothers connected for a big goal for Vancouver.Henrik Sedin got his second assist when Daniel Sedin scored his second goal at 1:20 of overtime, sending the Canucks to a 5-4 victory on Wednesday night.

“The twins made the magic happen once again and that was a big goal for them,” said forward Alexandre Burrows, who had an assist for Vancouver.Henrik made a great pass to his brother in the middle of the ice, and Daniel pushed it into the open left side of the net for his 13th of the season. He also scored in the third period to give Vancouver a 4-2 lead with 4:37 remaining.Canucks coach Willie Desjardins, who celebrated his 58th birthday, said the team got production from all over, but “the Sedins came through again for us with a couple of big ones late.”

Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists for for the Hawks, which looked listless for much of the night, and then closed with a flourish. Marian Hossa scored two goals for the third consecutive game.

“It’s feeling good when the puck’s going in for you,” Hossa said. “Just try to put a puck at the net – that’s my goal right now – and good things happen. That’s what I try to do.”

The Hawks dropped to 0-2 on its season-high eight-game homestand. The Blackhawks won consecutive games against Winnipeg and St. Louis before returning home for a 3-2 shootout loss to lowly Arizona on Monday night.Vancouver had a 3-1 lead before Hossa rushed in from the right side for a power-play score at 12:48 of the third. After Daniel Sedin restored the Canucks’ two-goal lead, the Blackhawks rallied again.First, Brandon Saad got a piece of Duncan Keith’s shot for a power-play goal. Then Hossa beat Eddie Lack on a bad-angle shot from the left side for his 16th, tying it at 4 with 55 seconds left.

“Whether it’s desperation or urgency, we kind of came alive there at the end,” Keith said. “We’re a tough team to play against when we get our backs against the wall, but you never want to let it get like that.”

The crowd of 21,346 chanted “Hossa! Hossa!” before the start of overtime, but Daniel Sedin quickly ended the extra session. He has 19 goals and 30 assists in 51 career games against the Hawks.

“That’s a good team over there,” Daniel Sedin said. “They made us pay at the end, but we got the overtime win and we’ll take it.”

Linden Vey, Bo Horvat and Zack Kassian scored in the second for Vancouver, which bounced back from Tuesday’s 5-3 loss at Minnesota. Lack had 37 saves one night after he replaced Ryan Miller in the second against the Wild.The Hawks made a couple of costly mistakes in its defensive zone, and Vancouver jumped on the miscues to move in front in the second period.The Blackhawks had a turnover and struggled to get the puck out of their end before the Canucks turned a 3-on-1 rush into Vey’s tying goal at 4:42. Radim Vrbata passed to Chris Higgins on the left, and he moved it to the other side to an open Vey for his eighth of the season.Vrbata has two goals and six assists in a seven-game point streak.David Rundblad then had an ugly sequence that ended with Horvat’s go-ahead score. Corey Crawford stopped Ronalds Kenins’ drive, but Rundblad was unable to clear away the rebound and Horvat slammed it home for his sixth goal.The Canucks increased their lead to 3-1 when Kassian deflected Luca Sbisa’s shot past Crawford while battling Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook in front of the net.

“I didn’t like the goals we gave up tonight, because it seemed like every goal that had, we had the puck in a good position and it ended up going the other way and into our net,” Joel Quenneville said. “Whether it was coverage or poor plays with the puck all led to back in our end and in the net.”

NOTES—Blackhawks F Kris Versteeg played 17 minutes in his return from a hand injury. Versteeg got hurt in the Winter Classic at Washington. … Sbisa and Higgins also had two assists apiece.

Montel James finished with 19 points and eight rebounds to lead Loyola to a 66-62 win over Southern Illinois on Wednesday night.Devon Turk added 15 points, including four 3-pointers, and James finished 9-of-13 shooting for the Ramblers (15-10, 5-8 Missouri Valley), who converted 23 of 42 (54.8 percent) field goals.Deion Lavender had 17 points, shooting 5-of-7 from 3-point range, Anthony Beane scored 16 and Jordan Caroline added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Southern Illinois (10-16, 3-10). Beane scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half.The lead changed seven times in the second half, including a dunk by Deane which gave SIU a 56-55 advantage with 6:43 left.A layup by James 33 seconds later sparked a 6-0 run and gave Loyola the lead for good.Jalen Pendleton’s free throw with 2:22 remaining pulled SIU within 64-62, but the Salukis missed their final three shots and committed two turnovers down the stretch.

CEDAR FALLS—Northern Iowa has gone from simply beating teams to blowing them out.Seth Tuttle scored 23 points and the 13th-ranked Panthers rolled past Illinois State 83-64 on Wednesday night for their 12th straight victory – and fourth in a row by at least 10 points.Deon Mitchell had 12 points for Northern Iowa (23-2, 12-1 Missouri Valley), which matched top-ranked Kentucky with its 23rd win. Only third-ranked Gonzaga has more wins than the Panthers, who haven’t lost since New Year’s Day.Northern Iowa built a 17-point halftime lead, tied for its largest of the season, and cruised to its 16th consecutive home win.

”That’s a really good basketball team,” Tuttle said. ”For us to come in here and do what we did … you can feel the momentum just keep building.”

Daishon Knight had 16 points for Illinois State (15-10, 7-6). The Redbirds let Northern Iowa rack up a season high in points for a game that ended in regulation.Illinois State represented Northern Iowa’s biggest roadblock to a 16-1 conference record ahead of a potential league title showdown at 15th-ranked Wichita State on Feb. 28.The Redbirds didn’t offer much resistance.Northern Iowa shot 58 percent in the first half – and five Panthers hit 3-pointers in the first 16 minutes. Northern Iowa went ahead by as many as 20 points and took a 50-33 lead into the locker room.Tuttle was again the early catalyst for the Panthers. He had 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting in just 9 minutes in the first half.The Redbirds looked as though they might make a run early in the second half, but Tuttle drained a 3 to put Northern Iowa back ahead 60-44. Paul Jesperson hit a 3 a few minutes later, and Northern Iowa’s lead was back up to 21 points.Tuttle also had a team-high five assists.

”He’s worked extremely hard to get to where he’s at,” Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. ”He’s unselfish. That’s why we see him play the way he does.”

Illinois State: The Redbirds are 0-9 in Northern Iowa’s McLeod Center…. Illinois State went more than 5 minutes without scoring midway through the first half.Northern Iowa: One of the notable omissions from the Wooden Award’s Late Season Top 20 list released earlier Wednesday was Tuttle, the current favorite for player of the year honors in the Valley. Tuttle entered averaging 17.5 points and 7.1 rebounds in conference games. … The Panthers needed a 3 from Nate Buss with 5.2 seconds left to beat the Redbirds 54-53 in Normal, Illinois, two weeks ago.Illinois State had pulled even at 13 when a pair of 3s from freshman Wyatt Lohaus helped the Panthers take their first double-digit lead, 26-15. The Redbirds never got close after that.Northern Iowa had 16 assists on 29 baskets. Illinois State had only seven on 24 field goals. Nine Panthers had at least one basket, and as a team they shot 54 percent from the field.Illinois State hosts No. 15 Wichita State on Saturday.