CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The only regular season meeting between the rival No. 7 Iowa and No. 19 Illinois men’s basketball teams lived up to its high expectations. But the closely-contested game wasn’t without controversy.

Iowa’s Joe Wieskamp put up a shot attempt near the basket with 1:06 remaining in the Fighting Illini’s (11-5 overall, 7-3 Big Ten) 80-75 victory over the Hawkeyes (12-4, 6-3) at The State Farm Center on Friday night. The attempt was rejected by Illinois center Kofi Cockburn, but Wieskamp immediately collected the rebound and laid the ball back in to cut the Fighting Illini lead to two points.

But officials had blown the play dead, calling goaltending on Cockburn. After review, the play was changed to a block. Iowa then turned the ball over, ending the possession with no points.

“To me it’s just frustrating,” said Wieskamp, who scored 19 points and hit five 3-pointers. “Even if it is a block, I got the rebound and put it right back in… Either way it should have been two points, either on the first one or the second one. We should have been down two with a minute left.”

Asked if that was the proper way for the officials to operate in that situation, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery only said, “Apparently.”

Instead of being down two, Iowa was down four.

“It’s a completely different scenario,” Wieskamp said of the difference in the score. “If we came down and got a stop and we’re down two with 30 seconds left, there are so many different options you could run.”

Illinois guard Trent Frazier hit a pair of free throws to push the team’s lead to six with 21 seconds remaining in the game. Still, Iowa had its opportunities.

Iowa’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, and no stranger to hitting shots in the clutch, Jordan Bohannon drained a shot from beyond the arc with 12 seconds left to bring the Hawkeyes to within three points. Then, Iowa forced a five-second call as Illinois couldn’t inbound the ball against the tight Hawkeye press defense.

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McCaffery called timeout and drew up a play.

Star center Luka Garza was set up to have the ball, but Cockburn defended him well and Illinois played the pick and roll differently than it had the previous possession, so Garza handed the ball off to Bohannon. The senior point guard’s contested 3-point attempt from the right wing was off the mark with seven seconds to go, and Illinois secured the rebound.

“We have full confidence in [Bohannon] and his ability to hit big shots,” Garza said. “You have to run the play for that guy at that point. He didn’t get the look that he wanted, but we know he can hit that shot. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get a rebound for him.”

Cockburn collected the rebound instead and was fouled.

The 7-foot center missed the front end of a one-and-one, but rebounded his own miss, securing the Fighting Illini victory and the second Hawkeye loss in a row. Cockburn converted on two free throws after being fouled again to push the game to its final score.

“We’re two great teams. They were better tonight,” Garza said. “There were stretches we could’ve won the game… We’ve got a long way to go. This is a journey for us. To leave a building like this and feel like we should have won, that’s a bad feeling.”

Beyond the controversy surrounding the goaltending play, Iowa in general failed to execute down the stretch. The Hawkeyes didn’t score on nine of their final 11 possessions.

Despite that, Garza spending stretches of the second half on the bench in foul trouble, and the Hawkeyes missing starter C.J. Fredrick because of an injury, the game stayed competitive right until the end. Illinois’ largest lead was seven points toward the start of the second half.

But the Fighting Illini made the clutch plays when they mattered to win a physical game that was competitive from the opening tip. And the Hawkeyes won’t get a chance for revenge the rest of the regular season.

“Last year I think really started this rivalry with Illinois,” Wieskamp said. “We had this marked on our calendars all year. To only get to play them once, and to lose in that fashion, is disappointing. Hopefully we get to play them in the Big Ten Tournament.”