Illinois tops Gophers in Big 10 opener

MINNEAPOLIS -- Sean Harrington was tired. His shooting was torrid.

Harrington scored 22 points and fellow senior Brian Cook had 25 points and 11 rebounds for No. 10 Illinois, which began its quest for a third straight Big Ten title with a 76-70 victory over Minnesota on Tuesday night.

Fighting Illini coach Bill Self doesn't want Harrington playing 36 minutes, but his contribution was critical with freshmen starters Dee Brown and Deron Williams ineffective.

"Maybe I've got it all screwed up," Self said. "Sean was unbelievable."

Harrington had six 3-pointers, four in the second half, for the young Illini (11-1) in front of a boisterous crowd of 13,548 at Williams Arena in the conference opener for both teams.

"Man, Sean just lit it up tonight," Illinois guard Luther Head said. "They had a nice crowd here. We had to play through that."

Michael Bauer had 17 points and Rick Rickert added 12 on 5-for-19 shooting for the Golden Gophers (8-4). Minnesota was held to 31 percent shooting (18-for-59) by the Big Ten's best defensive team and lost its ninth straight to Illinois.

"We let this slip away," Gophers guard Kevin Burleson said. "We had a lot of open shots that just didn't fall."