For the second time this season, the MSU men’s basketball team saw a streak come to an end at Breslin Center.
The Spartans’ 63-61 loss to No. 18 Illinois (18-7 overall, 7-5 Big Ten) on Tuesday night snapped a 15-game home winning streak against ranked opponents.
Three of those 15 wins came this season, including a 67-64 win against No. 23 Ohio State on Sunday. MSU (14-10, 5-6) is now 4-5 against ranked opponents this season.
“It hurts a lot,” sophomore guard Marcus Taylor said. “It takes away everything we gained against Ohio State.”
Taylor almost kept the streak alive down the stretch. With 15 seconds remaining, MSU was down 61-58 when he drove the length of the court and into the lane. But the guard missed a pull-up jumper and Illini guard Frank Williams grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Taylor. Williams hit both free throws.
On the next play Taylor hit a triple with 1.9 second left, but it wasn’t enough.
Taylor, who suffered a concussion when MSU beat Illinois 67-61 on Feb. 3, led MSU with 16 points, while Williams led all scorers with 22 points.
Two freshman guards helped put Taylor in position to tie the game on his final drive. Kelvin Torbert hit a triple from the top of the key with 34 seconds remaining and Chris Hill hit one to cut the gap to 59-58 with 27 seconds left.
Before that final sequence, a controversial timeout allowed Illinois to land a three-pointer, nearly sealing its win. With 1:18 on the clock, Williams dove for a loose ball and called a timeout as he rolled attempting to control the ball.
Players are not allowed to call time without possession of the ball, but officials said Illinois head coach Bill Self called the timeout.
After coming out of the timeout, Williams hit a three to put Illinois up, 57-52.
Izzo said the call didn’t matter because his team shouldn’t have allowed to the game to get that close.
“The game was probably decided in the first five minutes,” Izzo said. “The energy they brought was not the same as the energy we brought.”
That was evident from the start of the game as Illinois opened up with a 10-0 run. Guard Cory Bradford led the run with two triples and Williams led the Illini with nine points in the first half.
But MSU slowly crept back and tied the game at 29 as the buzzer sounded for halftime. Hill launched a desperation triple, but freshman guard Alan Anderson quickly snagged the rebound and beat the buzzer with a layup.
Because he thought MSU gave a poor effort in the first half, Izzo said he couldn’t believe the score was tied at halftime.
“How it was tied at half is beyond me,” he said.
Izzo said he was also surprised the score was so close because MSU spent the entire game in foul trouble.
Junior forwards Al Anagonye and Adam Ballinger and sophomore center Jason Andreas all recorded four fouls. Anagonye only played 18 minutes and didn’t score.
“My biggest problem with my game right now is staying in the game,” Anagonye said.
“I have to make smarter decisions of when to reach and when not to reach.”
One positive for the Spartans was Taylor becoming one step closer to All-American status. He was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches/Pontiac All-District 11 First Team.
Taylor is now eligible for the NABC/Pontiac Division I All-American team that will be announced at the end of the season. Williams also earned the same honors.
The Spartan’s will play their third game of the week Saturday when they travel to Purdue. Three of MSU’s last five games of the season are at Breslin Center.
Justin A. Rice can be reached at ricejust@msu.edu.
