CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - D.J. Richardson scored 18 points and Illinois opened up a big first-half lead that buried Purdue 79-59 on Wednesday night.
The win was the third straight for Illinois (18-8, 5-7 Big Ten), which is clawing its way back into the postseason picture. The other wins were resume-builders over No. 1 Indiana and then-No. 18 Minnesota.
A dunk by Tyler Griffey with 8:46 remaining put Illinois up 64-46. The margin was too much for a Boilermakers team that had already tried to dig out of a 16-point first-half hole.
Griffey scored 12 points and Joseph Bertrand had a career-high 12 rebounds.
Terone Johnson led Purdue (12-13, 5-7) with 18 points. Boilermakers coach Matt Painter was ejected for arguing with officials with just over eight minutes to play.
| Scoreboard | |||
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
| Purdue (12-13) | 29 | 30 | 59 |
| Illinois (18-8) « | 43 | 36 | 79 |
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| Purdue Boilermakers | |||||||
| STARTERS | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| D. Hale, F | 17 | 0-3 | 2-3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| A. Hammons, C | 24 | 4-6 | 2-2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| D. Byrd, G | 34 | 3-8 | 1-1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| T. Johnson, G | 34 | 5-11 | 5-6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 18 |
| R. Johnson, G | 30 | 4-11 | 1-4 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| BENCH | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| R. Davis | 24 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| A. Johnson | 19 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| S. Marcius | 12 | 3-7 | 0-0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| T. Carroll | 3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Lawson | 3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 21-55 | 11-16 | 34 | 9 | 12 | 59 | |
| 38.2% | 68.8% | ||||||
| Illinois Fighting Illini | |||||||
| STARTERS | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| S. McLaurin, F | 23 | 4-8 | 0-0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| N. Egwu, C | 22 | 4-10 | 0-0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| T. Abrams, G | 34 | 4-9 | 3-4 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 13 |
| D. Richardson, G | 30 | 4-11 | 8-8 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 18 |
| B. Paul, G | 22 | 1-6 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| BENCH | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| J. Bertrand | 30 | 4-7 | 1-1 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| T. Griffey | 19 | 5-10 | 2-3 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| M. Henry | 14 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| M. LaTulip | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Berardini | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| I. Djimde | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Langford | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M. Shaw | 1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 29-68 | 14-16 | 44 | 14 | 16 | 79 | |
| 42.6% | 87.5% | ||||||
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