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EAST LANSING – Malik Hall felt it slipping away again.
The Michigan State basketball forward missed a forward free throw Saturday with 3:18 left against Illinois, a reminder of his struggles at the foul line four days earlier in Minneapolis.
Seconds later, Hall collided with AJ Hoggard going for a defensive rebound and the Illini recovered. Then, after star Terrence Shannon Jr. drove by Hall and was fouled, the Spartans’ fifth-year senior leaned his head back and let out some words of self-frustration.
Whatever words Hall spoke to himself, he cursed Illinois.
Hall scored through contact for a pair of three-point plays to give MSU the lead for good, and Tyson Walker and AJ Hoggard made sure the Spartans finished off a much-needed victory, defeating the 12th-ranked Illini, 88 -80. , at the Breslin Center.
MSU (15-9, 7-6 Big Ten) won 11 of 15 and rebounded from blowing a nine-point second-half lead Tuesday in a bitter 59-56 loss at Minnesota.
Hoggard led MSU with 23 points and was 12 of 13 at the free throw line, including five in the final 1:39. The first two came after a steal and breakaway layup by Walker helped fuel the Spartans’ final run.
“That’s what coach’s been talking about, winning plays, that we’re going to make some big stops,” said Walker, who scored 19 points (his 35th straight game scoring in double figures) and added two of MSU’s six steals. “So it was important for us to take a step forward today… We’re not trying to lose two in a row. We definitely thought we let one slip away in Minnesota, so we’re just trying to be better.”
And it was a pivotal victory for MSU’s push to extend coach Tom Izzo’s record streak of NCAA tournament appearances to 26 straight.
“In my opinion, we go to the NCAA tournament every year. “I’m not going to be with a person who doesn’t go, I don’t want to be that person,” Hall said. “This was definitely an important victory. “I think we needed another big one for our resume, just to give us a little more push, I guess.”
Jaden Akins added 10 points and a team-high six rebounds as MSU tied 33 on the boards with the Illini, one of the best rebounding teams in the country. The game also featured 15 ties and 16 lead changes, with the Spartans outscoring Illinois 23-9 at halftime and 38-22 in the paint.
“It seemed like a game in March. And if it is, I love it,” Izzo said. “We won the game. And that’s when you want to win, it’s in March. I thought everyone was up. And I thought in the meetings, it showed. I don’t know why people can’t focus on those things, but sometimes they can’t.” we do”.
Illinois (17-6, 8-4) finished 11 of 30 from 3-point range (36.7%), but missed its last five in the final 6:47. Shannon led all scorers with 28 points, making 7 of 19 shots and grabbed seven rebounds. Coleman Hawkins scored 14 points and Marcus Domask scored 12 for Illinois.
For the game, MSU was 25 of 34 at the free throw line and Hall was 7 of 9 in the second half. Illinois finished 17 of 20. In the Illini’s 71-68 win over the Spartans on Jan. 11, they were 18 of 22 on free throws, but limited Izzo’s team to just 5 of 7 at the line by fouling just 10 times of the 24 that they were whistled for. for the Sunday.
“It’s almost a twist from the game in Champaign, when we got to the line and were much more aggressive… You have to give them all the credit, they were obviously the aggressors,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “You’re a passive, soft team when you foul. And obviously we fouled a lot today, so we were pretty passive.”
MSU returns to the road Wednesday at Penn State (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network).
racing game
Big runs and big plays, key rebounds and key decisions. All of that came together during a first half in which neither team could shake the other.
The Spartans struggled with three-point defense early, as the Illini hit four of their first six on open looks. Hawkins’ 3-pointer just after the midpoint of the half extended the lead to seven, but MSU’s defense clamped down from there and didn’t allow another 3-pointer for the rest of the half.
A steal by Hoggard and a layup after a free throw by Walker, followed by a layup by Akins, forced Underwood to call a timeout with 7:52 left before the half and the Spartans within two.
Shannon, who scored 16 points in the first 20 minutes, responded after the timeout with three straight baskets to give Illinois its biggest lead of the first half at 31-23 with 6:29 left.
That’s when MSU’s offense took flight, with a pair of Hoggard free throws sparking a 21-10 run over the final 6:15. The Spartans scored 10 in a row, the first on a Jaxon Kohler putback after Hoggard missed a 3-pointer. The senior point guard began distributing after that, setting up Hall for a 3-pointer on MSU’s next possession. Hall cleaned up a failed layup attempt by Walker, then Hoggard threw a pass to Akins for a 3-pointer.
That bucket put the Spartans up 44-39 and sent Breslin into a frenzy. But Akins was caught screaming on the Illinois bench and received a technical foul, angering Izzo and sending him onto the court to lunge at Akins before Hoggard stopped him. Shannon made the next free throws, but MSU took a 44-41 lead into the locker room.
The Spartans outrebounded the Illini by two and turned their three offensive rebounds into six points, limiting Illinois to two second-chance points on four offensive rebounds. Kohler had three rebounds in the half, turning his two on the offensive glass into buckets.
Hall made all four of his shots in the first half and scored 11 points in the half, with the Spartans shooting 57.7% overall and going 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Hoggard added 10 points by making all six of his free throws and dished out three assists.
“We fought. We kept our mental capacity. We kept a positive attitude,” said Hoggard, who also had five assists. “All we know is that basketball is a running game, and we knew how talented that team was and that they were going to make runs. So we had to stay level-headed and just bounce back, fight and make our runs.”
Distinctive victory
After the half it was more of the same.
Domask’s 3-pointer out of halftime was the first of seven ties and four lead changes in the first 8:53 of the half.
The fifth lead change came on another 3-pointer for Illinois, this one by Luke Goode with 10:40 left. That sparked a 12-2 run, with Domask dropping the Illini’s final 3-pointer to make the score 72-64 with 7:37 left.
MSU responded once again.
Walker made a pair of free throws and Hoggard put together a hot sequence.
First, he took his time before launching a 3-pointer from the corner after a pass from Walker in transition. Then, after an Illini turnover, Hoggard again received the ball on the right side of the court and attacked off the dribble. His hesitation fake sent Hawkins flying through the air, and Hoggard finished through the contact and scored the free kick. That brought MSU to a 72-72 deadlock with 4:10 remaining, the eighth tie of the second half.
The Spartans took the lead on Hall’s big sequence, with two Hawkins free throws giving Illinois a brief lead again with 2:29 left. But Hall’s second three-point play provided the final lead change.
“We let him catch it; 90% of the game, we didn’t let him catch it,” Underwood said of Hall’s key baskets. “We just sat behind him. I mean, they have a five-man (center), but they don’t have a five-man that can shoot. Coleman was sitting right behind him, right there to cover him, and we let him get it. And we also committed fouls that were not very intelligent.”
Those plays, and the subsequent steals by Walker and Hoggard, achieved the signature victory Izzo sought. He joins the blowout of No. 13 Baylor on Dec. 6 as the Spartans’ only wins over ranked opponents this season.
“Honestly, I felt like when we played them here two years ago and we didn’t get the job done,” Walker said, referring to a 79-74 home loss to Illinois on Feb. 19, 2022. “If I felt like that: “Big plays after big plays, back and forth. But we finally put together some plays and some stops to close out a game.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. FOLLOW IT @chrissolari.
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