MSU basketball: Not quite enough

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Kalin Lucas couldn't go. Draymond Green and the Michigan State Spartans almost got it done anyway.

Almost. But even with numerous comebacks from precarious deficits, even with handy contributions from guys who normally don't play - and even with Green's out-of-his-mind, 17-point, 16-rebound effort - MSU could not quite overtake Illinois in a thriller at rocking Assembly Hall.

Illinois forward Mike Davis blocked Durrell Summers' attempt at a tying 3-pointer with nine seconds left, then dunked on the other end for the final margin in a 78-73 victory that chopped No. 5 MSU's Big Ten lead to a single game.

A week ago, the Spartans (19-5 overall, 9-2 Big Ten) enjoyed a perfect league record and a three-game cushion. Purdue visits Breslin Center on Tuesday with a chance to make it even tighter.

"After the Wisconsin game it was a race," Green said of Tuesday's loss, in which Lucas went down with the right ankle sprain that kept him out of Saturday's game. "Now it's really a race. A one-game lead can change in the blink of an eye.

"It's really a race now and we have to get after it. But we can easily slip and end up losing the conference. That's not what we do, that's not what we work for, so we have to get it going. We don't know if we're gonna have Kalin for Tuesday. We hope we do, but if not, someone has to step up again."

MSU coach Tom Izzo said Lucas' odds of playing Tuesday are "maybe 50-50, maybe not," then amended that assessment by saying it was "just a throw-in-the-dark statement." Ultimately, Lucas will have to heal rapidly in the next few days for that to be possible.

The Spartans now lead Illinois (16-8, 8-3) and Wisconsin by just a game in the standings. Ohio State (7-3) can pull within a game by beating Iowa at home today, and 7-3 Purdue had the weekend off to prepare for Tuesday's game.

"We have to play tougher," Green said. "And when I say play tougher, I mean we have to get stops throughout the game and down the stretch. Down the stretch we didn't get enough stops, we let (Demetri) McCamey hit a big three on us.

"We just have to grow from it. We're on a two-game losing streak. We're facing adversity really for the first time this season, so we just have to bounce back and show what we're really made of. What's a better chance to bounce back than against Purdue for first place in the conference? We'll see if we can show what we're really made of right here."

Raymar Morgan tied Saturday's game at 68 with a pair of free throws with 1:46 left, erasing a seven-point deficit. But Illinois scored the next five points, including a 3-pointer from McCamey (22 points) with 37.7 seconds left.

Izzo wanted Morgan to guard McCamey on the play, but MSU switched on a screen and McCamey was able to fire the shot over the smaller Korie Lucious.

A Green putback kept MSU in it, then a Summers 3-pointer with 17.4 seconds left cut the lead to 74-73. But Illinois freshman D.J. Richardson hit a pair of free throws, then Davis blocked a Summers jumper for the second time in the final three minutes to seal the game.

"I tried to rise up," said Summers, who had 11 points, "(but) he got a piece of it."

Chris Allen, who started at point guard in place of Lucas, struggled to run the point but had 15 big points, hitting 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Lucious played the point for most of the night, finishing with three assists and six of MSU's 18 turnovers.

Izzo used 11 players by the midpoint of the first half, getting some contributions from Austin Thornton, Isaiah Dahlman and walk-on Mike Kebler.

Kebler, an Okemos High grad, gave five solid minutes at the point, assisting on two Allen shots with no turnovers.

"It was crazy," Lucious said of MSU's expanded playing group. "We (played) some guys that really haven't been playing a lot this year, but we have a lot of confidence in those guys."

Izzo said the game was "one of those 50-50 nights."

"You know, 50 percent of me is damn proud of my team, to be down that many times and keep bouncing back, bouncing back, shows a lot of character in my guys," Izzo said. "I'm disappointed in how we guarded in the first half, we just gave them three after three after three. And then some of the foolish turnovers in the second half."

Izzo said of Summers: "Durrell Summers is too good a player not to guard anybody. And he just is. And I mean that just as I said it. He's too good an athlete, too good a player."

Izzo was thrilled, though, with what he called "one of the single greatest performances" by Green, his sophomore sixth man.

"He's a warrior, man, he's just a warrior," Izzo said of Green. "He just grits his teeth and doesn't care about all the flash and dash. He is the perfect Spartan. He's just a blue-collar workhorse and I'm gonna ride him like a jack ass. ... Winning matters to him, it really does."

The loss snaps a five-game winning streak for MSU over Illinois, dating to the 2007-08 season. The Spartans had won seven of eight in the series, after losing five straight to Illinois from 2003-06.

This was the 11th straight meeting between the teams decided by 10 points or less. And although it was a demonstration of resolve on MSU's part, that was little consolation in light of the Spartans' first two-game losing streak since February of 2008.

"I don't think so," Green said when asked if the team can gain confidence from playing well without Lucas. "We lost. Regardless of what we did, I don't think we played hard enough. A lot of people would say we played hard, but we didn't play Michigan State hard. And so I don't think it gives us more confidence. Regardless of what we did, we lost the game. Regardless of what I did individually ... we lost the game, so it doesn't matter."