College men's basketball: No. 1 Michigan tops Illinois by one

INDIANAPOLIS - Forward Jordan Morgan banked home a game-winning shot with 8.9 seconds left to lift top-seed Michigan to a 64-63 come-from-behind victory over Illinois in a Big Ten tournament quarterfinal on Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
A driving Morgan took a feed from guard Nik Stauskas and pushed the ball off the glass for the go-ahead points.
Illinois’ bid for a game-winning shot failed as guard Tracy Abrams’ one-handed jumper fell short with one second showing.
The Wolverines (24-7) earned a semifinal date with Ohio State, who defeated Nebraska 71-67.
Stauskas scored a game-high 19 points, forward Glenn Robinson III had 15 and guard Caris LeVert added 13 for Michigan.
Guards Rayvonte Rice and Tracy Abrams scored 11 points while guard Kendrick Nunn added 11 for Illinois (19-14), which dropped an 84-53 decision 10 days ago in Champaign to the regular-season Big Ten champs.
LeVert’s 3-pointer broke a 33-33 tie with 1:41 left in the first half and added a dunk with 46 seconds showing as the Wolverines went on to a 38-33 halftime lead.
The Wolverines opened the second half with an 11-3 run for a 49-36 lead. But an Illinois rally got the game back into single digits at 49-40 on an Abrams’ layup at the 15:20 mark.
The Illini trimmed the deficit to 55-54 on Abrams’ 3-pointer with 8 minutes showing. Twenty-eight seconds later Robinson replied with a baseline 3-pointer to make it 58-54, the last Michigan points for the next 4:21.
Illinois took its first lead since the opening half at 59-58 on Rice’s running jumper with 4:57 to play and extended it to 61-58.
Michigan guard Derrick Walton Jr. tied the game with a 3-pointer with 3:09 on the clock but Rice replied with a two-point jumper to give Illinois a 63-61 edge.
Stauskas’ free throw with 55 seconds left made it a one-point game and set the stage for a final scramble and Morgan’s game-winner.
Michigan, which played in the 2012-13 NCAA title game, seeks its fourth straight NCAA appearance and fifth since 2009. Illinois still eyes a back-to-back trip to the national tournament and its third since 2011.
Ohio State 71, Nebraska 67
INDIANAPOLIS - Forward LaQuinton Ross collected 26 points and 13 rebounds as No. 24 Ohio State rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit to beat Nebraska 71-67 in a Big Ten tournament quarterfinal on Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
After dominating the early stages and then going cold for long stretches, the No. 5 seed Buckeyes (25-8) finally regained a lead in the final minute.
Guard Amedeo Della Valle secured the win with four free throws in the final 12 seconds. Della Valle finished with 12 points for the Buckeyes.
Forward Terran Petteway scored 20 points, forward Walter Pitchford had 15 and guard Shavon Shields added 12 for the No. 4 seed Cornhuskers (19-12).
Nebraska still has a good shot at landing an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament, although beating Ohio State would have made its situation more secure.
Shields had four points while guard Ray Gallegos added a jumper as Nebraska scored seven unanswered points for its first lead of the game on the way to a 31-28 halftime advantage.
Shields and Gallegos led the Cornhuskers with eight first-half points while Nebraska shot just 12-of-32 (37.5 percent) over the first 20 minutes. Williams and Ross had eight apiece for the Buckeyes.
Michigan State 67, Northwestern 51
Branden Dawson posted 16 points and nine rebounds as Michigan State cruised past Northwestern,     67-51, in a quarterfinal game of the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.
Indiana native Gary Harris added 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks for the No. 3 seed Spartans (24-8), which defeated the Wildcats for the 20th time in the last 22 meetings and will face second-seeded Wisconsin in a semifinal game on today. The Spartans grabbed 16 offensive boards to win the rebounding battle 40-24 and rejected eight shots - their third-highest total of the season.
Drew Crawford paced Northwestern (14-19) with 21 points while Alex Olah chipped in with 10. The Wildcats have dropped 27 of the last 30 and 52 of the last 57 meetings in this series.