Illini stun Badgers at Kohl Center

MADISON—Illinoiscelebrated with all its fans on Saturday. The cheers coming from the Illini locker room on Tuesday night were even sweeter.Demetri McCamey scored 27 points and Mike Tisdale added 19 on 8-of-11 shooting to lead Illinois to a 63-56 upset over No. 11 Wisconsin, snapping the Badgers’ 51-0 home record against unranked Big Ten opponents under coach Bo Ryan.The Illini (17-8, 9-3) ended Wisconsin’s 18-game home winning streak, but more important, Illinois won its fifth straight game after a 78-73 win over then-No. 5 Michigan State last weekend that featured fans rushing the court.This one was so much better because the Illini are now in prime position to challenge the Spartans for the regular-season conference crown.The schedule isn’t easy for Illinois, which plays four more ranked teams in its final six games, including two games with No. 13 Ohio State beginning at home on Sunday and a rematch with the Badgers in the regular-season finale.It was a shock for Wisconsin (18-6, 8-4), which got 15 points from Jason Bohannon, 13 in the second half, and 12 from Trevon Hughes. The Badgers are 133-11 under Ryan at home and hadn’t lost to any unranked opponent in more than four years.The Badgers built a 22-11 lead while only Tisdale could find the basket, hitting every field goal for the Illini until just over six minutes to play in the first half.McCamey, the Big Ten player of the week for his performances against Iowa and the Spartans, scored 15 of Illinois’ final 20 points of the half and the Illini hit 10 consecutive shots straddling halftime to erase the double-digit deficit.Instead, McCamey and his teammates kept clicking and finally broke through late after Wisconsin tied it at 53-all with 5:16 left on a 3-pointer by Bohannon.D.J. Richardson and McCamey answered with jumpers to push the lead to 57-53, and Wisconsin went cold, going scoreless for five minutes. The Badgers missed nine consecutive shots down the stretch, including a layup by Jordan Taylor with just over two minutes to play and 3s by Keaton Nankivil, Taylor, Hughes and Bohannon.McCamey hit one free throw with 58 seconds left and Richardson added two more 16 seconds later to give Illinois a 60-53 lead. Wisconsin went up 22-11 on a four-point play by Hughes, while the 7-1 Tisdale hit six of his first seven shots. His teammates, meanwhile, missed 10 in a row until McCamey’s layup with just over six minutes left until halftime. McCamey went on to hit three consecutive 3-pointers to end the half, rallying the Illini perhaps for the rest of the season.