CHAMPAIGN, Ill.— No. 11 Michigan State went 15-0 for the final seven minutes of its matchup against Illinois.  

The Spartans swept the series against the Fighting Illini 2-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 season. MSU also broke the three-game losing streak at the State Farm Center. The two teams last met on Jan. 19 in East Lansing, which MSU took 80-78. 

“I can’t think of a better way to bounce back than winning here, because there’s been some wars over the years and I have great respect for their program,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. 

Saturday night’s win also marked Izzo’s 354th Big Ten win, pushing him past former Indiana head coach Bob Knight, to become the new winningest head coach.  

“I coached another year, I played probably more conference games than him,” Izzo said. “If I could be in the same breath with him on that, that’s cool for me. I had great respect for him as a coach and he helped me a lot in my younger days as a head coach.” 

MSU trailed Illinois for the entirety of the first half. The Spartans were dominated by the Fighting Illini out of the gate with a 6-0 start from the Illini.  

The Green and White started to get some offensive momentum moving in the final 10 minutes of the first half with a few scoring runs to chip away at Illinois’ lead. Junior forward Jaxon Kohler pulled the Spartans within one point of the Fighting Illini twice in the final two minutes of the first half with a jumper and a triple.  

Kohler’s efforts weren’t enough to keep Illinois within striking distance before halftime because the Illini responded with a pair of threes from freshman forward Will Riley and freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis. The Spartans trailed the Fighting Illini 41-37 at halftime.  

The second half saw a reenergized MSU team that was more equipped to be competitive with a hungry Illinois team. Freshman guard Jase Richardson tied the game up for the first time with a breakaway dunk to make it 41-41 just over a minute into the second half.  

“I didn’t think we played that well early and then when we got rolling, we just kept rolling and they missed some of those good shots,” Izzo said. 

The Spartans claimed the lead for the first time with a shot from behind the arc from Kohler to sit at 44-41 with just about 18 minutes left in the second half. Illinois started to respond with a scoring run itself, but MSU wasn’t going to be lost easily this time tying it up five times in a five-minute span of play and never trailed more than two points. 

Illinois lost control of the game for the final six minutes of play after junior guard Tre Holloman hit a jumper to give MSU a 66-65 lead. The Illini didn’t see a bucket sink for the remainder of the game.  

Kohler recorded a career-high game with 23 points, breaking his former career-high of 20 points posted against Niagara on Nov. 7, 2024. He also recorded his sixth double-double with 10 rebounds. 

“Jaxon had one of those career nights,” Izzo said. “He hit a couple of threes, opened things up for us a little bit.” 

MSU will return home to host No. 7 Purdue on Tuesday with the tip-off set for 7 p.m.