Spartans and Fighting Illini Put on an Instant Classic, MSU edges ILL (80-78)

**BRESLIN CENTER-East Lansing, Mich**

One of Detroit’s brightest pitching stars since Justin Verlander was in attendance Sunday afternoon in 2024 AL Cy Young Tarik Skubal. The Tigers ace spent time touring the East Lansing basketball facilities, meeting the team and coaching staff ahead of their major tilt versus Illinois. It may have been the edge they needed after #8 Michigan State (16-2, 7-0) found themselves down double digits (18-8) seven minutes into the game and struggling while reserve Will Riley was sizzling for Illinois (13-5, 5-3).

Welcome to East Lansing, @TarikSkubal! 🐅 pic.twitter.com/dDFy2hyB1O

— Michigan State Men’s Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) January 19, 2025

The Spartans first lead would not come until the after the 10-minute mark of the second half, spending the first 3/4 of the game inching closer to regaining the lead just slightly faster than a melting glacier– as I imagine it felt like to most MSU fans. MSU would tie the score several times before finally overcoming the hump and continued to scrap to hold off Illinois all-the-way to the end. Izzone was loud and raucous after their energy was questioned during the end of the PSU game that saw the Nittany Lions make a late run, largely without much tenacity from the usually disrupting student section.

Izzo’s club was led by Tre Holloman tallying a team-high 17 points (5-9 FG, 7-8 FTs), Coen Carr with 11 points (4-6 FG, 1-3pt) and 2 blocks while Frank Fidler put together his third, consecutive game of impact chipping in 11 points (3-4 FG, 4-4 FTs) to go along with 3 rebounds/assists and zero turnovers. In a game where leading scorer Jaden Akins failed to record double digits (8 pts on 3-10 shooting, 0 3-pt taken) since he had 9 at Minnesota back on 12/4/24, Holloman combined with Jeremy Fears Jr. (9 pts, 6 assists) helped run the offense. Freshman sensation Jase Richardson also struggled (4 points, 2-8 FG, 0 assists) in guarding the perimeter with Akins as the defense had to scrap for every rebound and loose ball. Rebounds, assists, FG %, turnovers and fouls were almost all a wash. Illinois shot a poor 63% from the charity stripe (17-27) while MSU ended on a better note, after missing some early at 77.8% (21-27) but did lose the fast break margin by 6.

#illini Brad Underwood says the 2nd half technical foul wasn’t called on him.

“They T-ed our bench, (Michigan State’s) guy was up, but our guys got the T.”

It gave the Spartans two free throws late. Illinois lost by 2.

“Unfortunate. Two point game.”

Kasparas Jakucionis also… pic.twitter.com/cSv6kPNani

— Carson Gourdie (@GourdieReport) January 19, 2025

MSU edged out the win with Illinois star Kasparas Jakucionis sat majority of the game with foul trouble early-and-often and fouled out as he finished with 3 points and 3 assists in only 9 minutes played. Riley ended with 19 points (7-17 FG, 2-3 3-pt, 3-6 FTs) but also had foul issues in the second half and mustered only 3 points after the break. Morez Johnson contributed 11 points (3-3 FG, 5-8 FTs) and 6 rebounds while Tomislav Ivisic poured in 13 points (6-13 FG), 4 rebounds and 5 assists but was only 1-6 from deep. As a team, Illinois was held to 5-24 from 3-pt, an area they normally do not struggle in.

The team drew some energy from their fellow hockey team who rebounded and won a big game against rival UofM at Munn Arena Saturday night, the #21 Women’s basketball also defeating Illinois in Champaign, continuing to stay ranked in the Top 25 and the #6 Women’s Gymnastics team defeated #20 UofM in the first meeting ever at the Breslin Center, the evening before. Campus is buzzing with championship aspirations across a handful of winter teams and Coach Izzo wrapped up his press conference with a simple “Don’t take it for granted.”

What a weekend for the Spartans!

Eight team wins including victories vs. ranked opponents by @MSU_Basketball, @MSU_Gymnastics, @MSU_Hockey and @MSU_MTennis. #GoGreen pic.twitter.com/Aeefaxs2cQ

— Michigan State Athletics (@MSU_Athletics) January 19, 2025

TEAM STATS:

Spartans: 28-65 FG (43.1%), 3-10, 3-PT (30.0%), 21-27 FT (77.8%)

Fighting Illini: 28-66 FG (42.4%), 5-24, 3-PT (20.8%), 17-27 FT (63.0%)

Record/Rankings & More:

16-2 (7-0, 1st-Big Ten) Rankings: #8 AP / #8 Coaches Poll
Updated KenPom- Off: 21st / Def: 17th. Adjusted Tempo: 128th. SOS Net Rtg: 38th +6.79

Other Metrics: KPI (17th), ESPN SoR (10th), ESPN BPI (16th), T-Rank: 14th

FULL KenPom Stats: https://kenpom.com/index.php

FULL Bart Torvik Stats: https://barttorvik.com/#

FULL T-Rank Stats: https://www.warrennolan.com/basketball/2025/net-teamsheets-plus#google_vignette

NEXT ON THE CLOCK:

Spartans will receive a lengthy break, not playing again until Saturday at Rutgers, 1/25 at 1:30pm EST on CBS. Rutgers is 10-9 (3-5) as Dylan Harper spent the last few weeks suffering from an illness and regaining his game-speed scoring touch that has had him the conversation for Big Ten POY. Rutgers lost Monday 1/20 at PSU 72-80.