LDN - Sports

Hill helps Illinois hold off Michigan State

[March 02, 2017] The Sports Xchange

In his final college home game, senior swingman Malcolm Hill scored a game-high 22 points to guide Illinois to a 73-70 Big Ten victory over Michigan State on Wednesday night at State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill.

Illinois owned an 11-point lead midway through the second half, but couldn't exhale until a running 3-point attempt by Spartans guard Tum Tum Nairn banged off the glass at the buzzer.

The Illini (18-12, 8-9 Big Ten) won their fourth game in a row and extended their late-season run toward the NCAA Tournament bubble as sophomore forward Leron Black contributed 15 points and seven rebounds while senior center Maverick Morgan added 14 points and seven rebounds.

Michigan State (18-12, 10-7) rallied behind freshman forward Miles Bridges (21 points) and senior guard Alvin Ellis III (15 points). Bridges' 3-pointer with 54 seconds left pulled the Spartans within 71-70, but he missed a potential game-tying shot with four seconds to go.

Illinois needed some time to hit its stride. When Kyle Ahrens delivered a fast-break layup with 9:39 left in the first half, Michigan State owned a 21-15 lead and had Illinois frustrated because it had been whistled for eight fouls to Michigan State's none.

But by the 5:00 mark of the half, the Illini had seized a 32-24 lead as they drilled four 3-pointers in a 2:20 stretch -- two by Black and one apiece by Hill and sophomore guard Jalen Coleman-Lands.

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Illinois pushed its margin to 39-29 in the final moments of the first half, but the Spartans went into the locker room with momentum as Bridges drove for a layup with three seconds left and Ellis III stole the inbounds pass and released a layup with 0.1 of a second on the clock to pull the Spartans within 39-33 at the break.

The Spartans regained the lead just 2:47 into the second half as Bridges turned a twisting layup into a three-point play for a 42-41 edge. That's when Illinois' defense stiffened and limited Michigan State to five points over the next seven-plus minutes to take a 58-47 lead on freshman forward Kipper Nichols' driving layup with 10:17 to go.

Ellis III responded with three 3-pointers in a 2:19 span to pull the Spartans within 62-58 with 7:36 left, but the visitors never found a way to get closer than four until Bridges buried a 3-pointer with 53.9 seconds left to cut Illinois' lead to 71-70.

Hill split a pair of free throws with 19.1 seconds left, then Nichols split a pair with 3.4 seconds left to provide the margin of victory.

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