Illinois fends off No. 9 Michigan State to pull upset

[February 06, 2019]  Illinois entered Tuesday night's game against No. 9 Michigan State with nothing to lose, and it showed.

The Fighting Illini, who entered the game having won two of three, forced Michigan State into a season-high 24 turnovers, built a double-digit lead early in the second half then held off a furious Spartans rally to pull off the 79-74 victory in Champaign, Ill.

With the game tied at 68 in the final minutes, Ayo Dosunmu, who led all scorers with 24 points, nailed two straight 3-pointers to help the Fighting Illini put the game away.

Giorgi Bezhanishvili added 16 points for Illinois (8-15, 4-8 Big Ten) while Trent Frazier scored 15 and Andres Feliz chipped in 10.

Cassius Winston scored 21 to lead the Spartans, but his nine turnovers were critical in allowing Illinois to build the lead that grew to 14 early in the second half. Xavier Tillman added 16 points, while Nick Ward and Kyle Ahrens had 11 points each.
 

The Spartans (18-5, 9-3) have lost three straight for the first time since late January of the 2016-17 season.

The Spartans turned the ball over 10 times before the game was 10 minutes old and finished with 16 by halftime. Winston made seven of those, while some poor decisions led to a few more by his teammates.

The sloppy play allowed Illinois to get the home crowd into the game early as a triple from Dosunmu gave the Fighting Illini an 18-9 lead with 13:21 left in the half, and he later swiped two straight errant Michigan State passes and went the distance for uncontested layups to give the Illini a 31-21 advantage.

The lead grew to 38-25 after the Illini scored five straight, capped by a Bezhanishvili basket with 3:04 remaining.

Michigan State cut the margin to 41-32 late in the half on back-to-back buckets from Ward and Tillman and had a chance to trim it to seven, but Winston missed the front end of a one-and-one with 45 seconds to play.

Illinois Fighting Illini guard Andres Feliz (10) and Michigan State Spartans forward Xavier Tillman (23) compete for a loose ball during the second half at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports

The Illini got a 3-pointer from Frazier in the first minute of the second half and took their biggest lead to that point, 51-37, when Tevian Jones completed a three-point play with 16:17 to play.

With the lead still at 14, 58-44, Michigan State started to chip away.

Two buckets from Tillman got things going, and later a 3-pointer triple in transition from Matt McQuaid pulled the Spartans within six points.

Later, a Winston 3-pointer was followed by back-to-back treys from Goins that gave Michigan State a 64-63 lead, its first of the game.

A put-back from Tillman extended the lead to three before Dosunmu hit two free throws to make it 66-65 with 5:12 to play.

A runner from Winston was answered by a three-point play from Andres Feliz to tie the game at 68 with 4:16 to play.

That's when Illinois slammed the door, getting a pair of stops and answering with two 3-pointers in a row from Dosunmu to pull away.

--Field Level Media

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