Feb 18, 2003

Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

By JIM PAUL
Associated Press Writer

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Dee Brown felt he owed his teammates a big game and he delivered.

The freshman guard had 24 points, five rebounds and five steals and No. 20 Illinois held Michigan State scoreless for a 9:38 span in the second half in a 70-40 victory on Tuesday night.

The 6-foot Brown seemed to be involved in every play. He made two steals to spark an 18-0 run in the first half and led capped several fast breaks with layups before leaving the game with 5:42 to play.

"I was hyped for this game," Brown said. "I knew it was a big game and after the performance I had against Purdue in West Lafayette, I just had to come out and provide my team with energy."

Brown scored six points on 2-for-10 shooting last Saturday in a 70-61 loss to the Boilermakers.

The Illini (17-5, 7-4 Big Ten) pulled away for good when Brown's layup with 11:42 to play sparked a 21-0 run that put them up 69-28. The Spartans (14-10, 6-6) were held scoreless until Chris Hill's 3-pointer broke the drought with 3:30 to play.

By then it was far too late for the Spartans, who missed 22 of 32 shots in the second half and wound up shooting only 32 percent for the game.

Hill led the Spartans with 12 points.

"I thought we started out pretty well and did some good things, and then we just fell apart," said coach Tom Izzo, who had only one worse loss with the Spartans, a 35-point loss to Iowa on Feb. 21, 1996.

The Illini won their 15th straight home game. It was coach Bill Self's 70th win in three seasons at Illinois and the 199th of his career. The last time the Illini lost at Assembly Hall was to Michigan State, 67-61 on Feb. 2, 2002.

Illinois was missing guard Luther Head, who sat out with an abdominal strain, and freshman Kyle Wilson, who left the team last week for personal reasons. Reserve center Nick Smith was hobbled by a sprained ankle but wound up playing 23 minutes and scoring nine points, all in the first half.

They also played most of the game without leading scorer Brian Cook, who played only 15 minutes and scored four points.

"We're very capable of playing without Brian," Smith said. "It's obviously a huge plus having the best player in the league on your team and you want him to play as much as possible, but I don't think we have to have Brian to win every game."

The Spartans used a 6-0 run to take an 8-2 lead, but after that, the first half belonged to Illinois. Brown's 3-pointer with nine minutes left capped an 18-0 run for a 20-8 lead.

Michigan State hit only seven of 21 shots in the first half and committed 11 turnovers. Smith's buzzer beater on a long inbounds pass put Illinois up 37-17 at halftime.