Jaxon Kohler scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as No. 11 Michigan State gave coach Tom Izzo his record-setting 354th Big Ten win with a 79-65 victory over Illinois on Saturday night in Champaign, Ill.
The Spartans (20-5, 11-3 Big Ten) trailed by 16 points in the first half but closed the game on a 15-0 run to enable Izzo, in his 30th season, to surpass Bob Knight as the league’s winningest coach.
Tre Holloman posted 14 points, Jase Richardson contributed 11 and Coen Carr added 10 as Michigan State limited Illinois to 38.1 percent shooting from the field and won the rebounding battle 41-36.
Kasparas Jakucionis and Morez Johnson Jr. led Illinois (17-9, 9-7) with 17 points apiece while Will Riley added 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists off the bench. The Fighting Illini missed their last 19 shots of the contest and didn’t score for the final 8:28.
Sparked by two thunderous dunks from Johnson in the first two minutes of the game, Illinois broke out to a 6-0 lead that had the sellout crowd up on its feet. When Jake Davis came off the bench and drilled back-to-back 3-pointers in a 21-second span, the Illini pushed their advantage to 17-6 and inspired Izzo to take a timeout at the 14:46 mark of the first half.
Illinois’ lead swelled to 31-15 on Riley’s jumper with 8:46 left in the first half, but Michigan State found its footing and unleashed a flurry to get back into the game. Kohler and Carr soon combined for 13 straight points — a run highlighted by a rim-rattling Carr dunk and a Kohler 3-pointer — to cut the hosts’ cushion to 35-34 with 2:10 to go.
Illinois carried a 41-37 lead into halftime. However, Michigan State maintained its momentum and needed less than two minutes of the second half to seize its first lead of the game. Jeremy Fears Jr. drove for a shot-clock-beating layup, Richardson threw down a breakaway jam and Kohler hit a 3-pointer from the corner as Michigan State went up 44-42 at the 18:28 mark.
From there, neither team led by more than four until the Spartans’ game-ending run, which erased a narrow 65-64 Illinois lead.
–Field Level Media
