Jaxon Kohler received a career pile of 23 points and took 10 returns when No. 11 Michigan State gave coach Tom Izzo his record setting 354th Big Ten-victory with a victory 79-65 over Illinois on Saturday night in Champaign, Ill.
The Spartans (20-5, 11-3 Big Ten) dragged 16 points during the first half but closed the match on a 15-0 driving to enable Izzo, in its 30th season, to surpass Bob Knight as the league’s winning coach.
Three Holloman published 14 points, Jase Richardson contributed 11 and Coen Carr added 10 when Michigan State Limited Illinois to 38.1 percent shooting from the field and won the recovery fight 41-36.
Kasparas Jakucionis and Morez Johnson Jr. Led Illinois (17-9, 9-7) with 17 points per piece while Will Riley added 13 points, seven returns and six assists from the bench. The Battle Illini missed his last 19 shots of the competition and did not score for the final 8:28.
Illinois broke out of two thunderstorms from Johnson during the first two minutes of the game, Illinois broke out to a 6-0 lead who had a Sellout audience up on his feet. When Jake Davis came from the bench and drilled back-to-back 3 points in a 21-second span, Illini pushed his advantage to 17-6 and inspired Izzo to take a timeout at the first half 14:46.
Illinoi’s leader swelled to 31-15 on Riley’s Jumper with 8:46 left during the first half, but Michigan State found his foot and released a movement to get back into the game. Kohler and Carr soon combined for 13 straight points-a driving highlighted by a rim-screaming carr-can and a Kohler 3-pointer-to cut the host’s pillow to 35-34 with 2:10 to go.
Illinois wore a lead of 41-37 to half time. However, Michigan State maintained its speed and needed less than two minutes of the second half to grab its first lead in the game. Jeremy Fears Jr. ran for a slide-clocking arrangement, Richardson threw down an interruption jam and Kohler hit a 3-point from the corner when Michigan State went up 44-42 at the ground 18:28.
From there, no team of more than four led until the Spartan game-ending driving, which deleted a narrow 65-64 Illinois lead.
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