Illinois Basketball: Illini MVP against Michigan State part 2

The Illinois basketball team suffered their third-straight loss to the Michigan State Spartans on Tuesday night, 70-69.

Illinois started off bad as they were down 17 points by the end of the first half. The Illini fell behind by 20 in the second half but fought back. They took the lead multiple times near the end of the game but fell just short. There are co-MVPs for this game against Michigan State.

The co-MVPs for the Orange and Blue are Ayo Dosunmu and the Illini defense.

Ayo played poor in the first half but played phenomenal in the second half. He scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half to go with his nine rebounds. Ayo shot 7-of-17 from the field and 1-of-4 from three-point land. He also played great defense in the second half with three steals.

Sadly, Ayo suffered a leg injury on the last play of the game. I hope the injury isn’t serious, and I hope he gets well soon.

This Illinois defense really played great in the second half as well. Trent Frazier, Ayo, Andres Feliz and Alan Griffin all played shutdown defense. These four players really disrupted the Spartans perimeter offense.

The Illini caused a lot of turnovers that led to fastbreak points.  Da’Monte Williams and Kofi Cockburn also played well on the defensive end. Illinois forced 16 turnovers in the game while only fouling 16 times.  The Illini defense was the main reason for the team having a chance to win at the end.

This loss gives Illinois an overall record of 16-8 and they are 8-5 in Big Ten play. We need to get back on track soon, though. The next matchup is against Rutgers this Saturday.