No. 9 Michigan State Comes Up Short At Illinois, 79-74

Champaign, Ill. – No. 9 Michigan State came back from a 14-point second half deficit to take a three-point lead, but Illinois used a late run en route to a 74-70 win over the Spartans on Tuesday night at State Farm Center.

Junior guard Cassius Winston (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) scored 21 points and had nine assists to lead the way for MSU, while sophomore forward Xavier Tillman (Grand Rapids, Mich./GR Christian) tallied a career-high 16 points and eight rebounds, redshirt junior Kyle Ahrens (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles) had 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists and junior forward Nick Ward (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) chipped in 11 points.

Records
Michigan State loses its third-straight game and falls to 18-5 overall and 9-3 in the Big Ten, while Illinois improves to 8-15 overall and 4-8 in league play.

Summary

Trailing by 14 points, 58-44, with 13 minutes left in the game, the Spartans began to chip away, with a pair of free throws from Ahrens at the 9:25 mark cutting the lead to 58-50.
Winston hit a 3-pointer at 7:34 to make it 61-58 before back-to-back 3-pointers from redshirt senior Kenny Goins (Troy, Mich./Warren Mott) gave MSU its first lead of the game, 64-63, with 6:21 to play.
A layup from Tillman with 5:25 left capped a 22-5 run as the Spartans took a 66-63 lead.
Winston scored on a layup to maintain the lead, 68-65, but Illinois tied the game on a three-point play from Andres Feliz and Ayo Dosonmu hit a pair of 3-pointers, the last with 1:54 left to give the Illini a 74-68 lead.
MSU would pull to within three points, 77-74, after Tillman free throws with 25 seconds left, but could get no closer.
The Spartans trailed by nine, 41-32, at the break, but Illinois pushed the lead to 14 points, 51-37, on a three-point play from Trevian Jones.
Michigan State went into the half trailing 41-32 after turning the ball over 17 times in the first half, with the Illini scoring 18 points off of those turnovers.
The Spartans never led and fell behind by 10 points, 31-21, after a layup from Illinois freshman guard Auyo Dosunmu, forcing MSU to call a timeout.

Key Stats

Michigan State turned the ball over 24 times, including 17 in the first half, and Illinois scored 28 points off Spartan turnovers.
Illinois connected on 50.0 percent of its first half field goals (16-of-32), hitting six 3-pointers.
Michigan State took a season-low 43 shots from the field.
The Spartans connected on 92.0 percent of their free throws (23-of-25).

Notes

Michigan State lost its third-straight game, the first time the team has lost three-straight games since the 2016-17 season.
The Spartans tied a season-high with 24 turnovers.
MSU hit a season-low 22 field goals.
The Spartans connected on 92.0 percent of their free throws (23-of-25), the team's second-best performance of the season (95.2 percent, at Iowa).
Cassius Winston scored 21 points to lead the way for the Spartans, his 12th game this season with at least 20 points and the ninth time in the last 12 games.
Winston led MSU in scoring for the 13th time this season and reached double figures for the 22nd time.
Xavier Tillman scored a career-high 16 points, reaching double figures for the 10th time this season.
Kyle Ahrens scored 11 points, his third game in double figures this season, and tied a season and career-high with seven rebounds.
Nick Ward scored 11 points, his 18th game in double figures this season.

Up Next
Michigan State returns home on Saturday, Feb. 9, hosting Minnesota at the Breslin Center. Tipoff for the game is slated for 2 p.m. and it will air on ESPN2, with Jason Benetti and Dan Dakich calling the action.

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Team Stats

Cassius Winston

Xavier Tillman Sr.

Kyle Ahrens

Nick Ward

Players Mentioned

Kyle Ahrens

Kenny Goins

Xavier Tillman Sr.

Nick Ward

Cassius Winston

Players Mentioned

Kyle Ahrens

Kenny Goins

Xavier Tillman Sr.

Nick Ward

Cassius Winston