Feb. 24, 2001

Box Score

CHICAGO (AP) - Joel Cornette scored 20 points and Butler won the Midwestern Collegiate Conference's regular season title by beating Illinois-Chicago 68-66 Saturday.

Winner of five straight, Butler's Bulldogs (20-7, 11-3 MCC) will take the top seed into the league's postseason tourney. They had been tied for first with Detroit, which lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Saturday.

With the score tied 61-61, Brandon Miller's basket gave the Bulldogs the lead for good.

The Flames (11-16, 5-9), who led 31-28 at halftime, stayed close in the final minutes but Butler made their free throws to stay ahead. Illinois-Chicago's T.J. Mixon missed a 3-pointer at the horn.

Miller added 15 points, six assists and five rebounds for Butler.

For the Flames, Taurus Cook and Jon-Pierre Mitchom had 12 points, Maurice Brown each had Mixon 11 and Joe Scott added 10.

The stats were extremely similar, with both teams shooting around 48 percent from the field, sinking 14 free throws, dishing off 15 assists and committing eight turnovers.