Champaign, Ill. - Forward Brian Cook carried No. 12 Illinois against the Spartans in the first half Sunday at Assembly Hall.

But after scoring 20 points in that half, the 6-foot-10, 240 -pounderonly scored two points in the second half as MSU (13-8 overall, 4-4) routed the Illini (15-7, 4-5) 67-61.

Without that first half explosion, the game wouldn’t have been nearly as close, Illinois head coach Bill Self said.

“If it weren’t for Brian in the first half it would have been a double digit game at halftime,” Self said.

Despite his second half performance, the 22-points were still a game high and Cook’s career best. Cook kept Illinois in the game early by scoring 10 straight points to cut MSU’s lead to 22-18 at the 7:31 mark.

And that 10-point run only counted for half of his first half output. He finished the half shooting 8-of-11 from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from three-point land.