Any concerns of a Spartan letdown following their big win over North Carolina earlier in the week were eliminated within the first three minutes of Saturday’s game.

The third-ranked Spartans jumped to a 12-3 lead in the opening half and never looked back to rout Illinois-Chicago 97-53 at the Breslin Student Events Center.

MSU improves to 5-0, extending its nation-leading winning streak to 16 games. Illinois-Chicago falls to 2-3 on the year.

Freshman center Zach Randolph led all scorers with 19 points and added 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. Following him were sophomore guard Jason Richardson with 17 points and six rebounds and senior forward Andre Hutson, who had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

With Illinois-Chicago’s center Thor Solverson out with an injury, the Spartans built a 54-27 rebounding edge in the game, 20 of which were offensive rebounds. As a result, MSU had 13 second chance points.

Of Richardson’s six boards, five were on the offensive glass while senior guard David Thomas had six rebounds, including four offensive boards.

In the first half, MSU drained shots from the perimeter to build a 42-24 halftime lead. The Spartans ended up shooting 52.2 percent from the field. The Flames didn’t shoot as well, only making 34.4 percent of their shots.

Illinois-Chicago also was plagued with turnovers as they had trouble negotiating MSU’s man-to-man defense early in the game. The Spartans capitalized on 22 Illinois-Chicago turnovers with 18 points.

In the second half, MSU continued racking up the points, outscoring Illinois-Chicago 55-29 in that time.

With a comfortable lead, MSU head coach Tom Izzo played his reserves for most of the second half.

Izzo ended up getting nearly half of his scoring production from his bench, namely Randolph, freshman forward Adam Wolfe, freshman guard Marcus Taylor and senior forward Mike Chappell. The four combined for 48 points.