Feb. 5, 2009

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois women's basketball team won the rebounding battle and got big production from its stars, but it wasn't enough as the Illini dropped a 63-50 contest to Michigan State on Thursday night at Assembly Hall. Juniors Jenna Smith and Lacey Simpson once again led the way for Illinois, as Smith scored a game-high 19 points and Simpson had her seventh double-double of the year with 12 points and 12 rebounds along with seven steals and four blocks.

Michigan State entered the game leading the Big Ten in rebounding with a +9.5 margin but Illinois (6-17, 2-10) held own on the glass, out-rebounding the Spartans, 33-30, and snaring 14 offensive boards. Turnovers, however, proved to be costly for Illinois as 22 miscues turned into 32 points on the other end for MSU. The Spartans also held a 38-18 edge in the paint.

After trailing 36-18 at halftime, the Orange and Blue slowly crept back into the game in the second half, cutting the Michigan State lead to seven points at 47-40 with 7:14 to play. Redshirt freshman Lydia McCully had an open three-pointer on the Illini's next possession that would have cut the MSU lead to just four, but it was off the mark. The Spartans scored the next six points to push the lead back to 13, effectively putting the game away.

In the first half, Michigan State (16-7, 9-3) jumped out to a 10-1 lead, but Illinois responded with a 9-0 run to tie the score at 10 with 11:25 to play. The game went back and forth over the next few minutes, as a jumper by freshman Fabiola Josil made the score 22-18 in favor of MSU with 4:26 to go in the half. The Spartans then caught fire, creating havoc on the defensive end and ending the half on a 14-0 run to lead 36-18 at the break. Turnovers proved to be the difference, as 16 Illini miscues led to 22 Michigan State points in the first half. Simpson had six points, seven rebounds, three steals and three blocks at the half, but also had eight turnovers.

Illinois freshman Macie Blinn joined Smith and Simpson in double-figures with 10 points as the Orange and Blue shot 37.7 from the field, 12.5 percent from three and 81.8 percent from the line. MSU shot 49.1 percent for the game, but was held to just 27.3 percent from downtown.

Smith's 19 points moved her up two spots on the Illinois career scoring list and into 10th place. The junior from Bloomington, Minn., now has 1,383 points and moved past Kris Dupps (1,373) and Tiffanie Guthrie (1,382) on the UI all-time list. Smith has now scored in double-digits in 31 straight games and in 59 of the last 60 games.

Simpson, who entered the game as the Big Ten's steals leader (3.18 spg), jumped all the way from ninth to fifth on the Illinois single season steals list. She now has 77 thefts on the season and 235 for her career, which ranks third in school history behind only Allison Curtin's school record of 252 and Jill Estey's second place total of 246. Simpson also moved into the top-five of the Illinois career blocks list, as her four swats tonight give her 113 for her career and move her past Angelina Williams (112) and into fifth place.

The Illini will now head to Bloomington, Ind., on Sunday for a 12:30 p.m. ET game against Indiana. They'll then return home to host Northwestern on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m.