No. 6 Purdue 75, Illinois 67

The Boiling Point: Purdue continued its February surge, closing out the home portion of its regular season slate with a win that was probably a bit tougher than originally expected.

THE STORY: Illinois, needing a statement win to improve its NCAA tournament resume, tried its best to spoil Purdue’s special night. But the Boilers’ two senior superstars, E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, didn’t allow their careers to end on a sour note. Purdue overcame a 13-point first half deficit, tied the game at halftime and pulled away from there. A late Illini rally did tighten up the margin, but a couple big shots by Moore clinched it down the stretch.

TURNING POINT: It took until the final minute before the soldout crowd at Mackey Arena could exhale. E’Twaun Moore’s fall-away 3-point jumper with 52.3 seconds left gave the Boilers a 72-64 lead and sealed the win.

GAME BALL: It’s senior night, so we’ll allow JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore to split the game’s MVP honors (though D.J. Byrd was big, despite his suspect free-throw shooting late). Anyway, as always, Moore and Johnson led the way, combining for 41 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

SPORTSCENTER MOMENT: D.J. Byrd ran the fastbreak like a pro, finding a cutting JaJuan Johnson wide open. JJ did the rest. He threw down a thunderous one-handed dunk to pull Purdue within 35-32 at the 1:43 mark before halftime.

WHAT IT MEANS: For the moment, the win moved the Boilers to just a half-game behind Ohio State in the Big Ten standings. But the Buckeyes won on the road late Tuesday night, widening their lead back to a full game with one more left to play. The victory also gives Purdue another quality win to solidify its bid for a 2-seed.

GETTING CRITICAL: Illinois was sharp and efficient offensively to start the game, so some credit goes to the Illini for that. But Purdue typically has so much energy and aggressiveness on defense that it throws its opponents off their game. You’re supposed to be frustrated when you play against the Boiler D. That didn’t happen early on Tuesday.

ODDS AND EDDS: Here’s some love for D.J. Byrd, since he couldn’t get the game ball. He had 16 points, seven rebounds and drew a couple of charges that were huge. … Bruce Weber and Matt Painter are friends. The Illinois and Purdue players are not. There were a number of moments where emotions were spilling over (No surprise that Kelsey Barlow was involved in a few of those). … The refs were horrible, on both ends. … Great ovation from the crowd for Moore and Johnson, who were subbed out with three seconds left. They’ll be missed. … Hilarious to see the 7-foot-1 Mike Tisdale get blocked twice in a row with about two minutes left (once by JJ and again by Byrd). If you can basically grab the rim while standing flat-footed, you should never be blocked around the rim. Only Tisdale…