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GAME NOTES: Coming off their first conference loss of the campaign, the fifth- ranked Michigan State Spartans pull into Champaign for tonight's Big Ten clash with the Illinois Fighting Illini.

A 67-49 setback at Wisconsin on Tuesday snapped a 10-game win streak for the Spartans, who at 9-1 in conference still sit atop the standings. Their 19-4 overall mark is certainly impressive, as is their perfect 13-0 ledger at home. Michigan State is 5-3 in true road games, and 6-4 outside of East Lansing when you add a pair of neutral-site affairs.

Illinois has an 11-1 home mark this season, and the team has won three in a row to improve to 15-8 overall and 7-3 in the Big Ten. The Illini were most recently in action at Iowa on Wednesday night, and that tilt resulted in a 57-49 victory. The 49 points allowed to the Hawkeyes was the third-fewest permitted by Illinois in 2009-10, and was just slightly above the 42 Iowa scored in the first meeting between the teams in the conference opener back on January 5th.

Michigan State beat Illinois three weeks ago in a 73-63 final, snapping a 53-53 tie in the all-time series. The Spartans have won the last five meetings with the Illini.

The 49 points put up by Michigan State at Wisconsin earlier this week marked a season-low for coach Tom Izzo's team, which shot just 37 percent from the field and converted a mere 2-of-9 three-point attempts. In contrast, the Badgers drained 50.9 percent of their total shots and committed only five turnovers. Durrell Summers scored 11 points as the only Spartan to reach double figures in defeat, and Raymar Morgan came away with 10 rebounds. For the season, Kalin Lucas heads the team's scoring list with 15.6 ppg, while Morgan checks in with 11.0 points and 5.7 caroms per contest. Lucas is also MSU's primary playmaker with 91 assists. Summers and Draymond Green are both averaging double digits in scoring with 10.8 and 10.2 ppg, respectively, helping the team put up 75.3 ppg on 48.2 percent field goal accuracy. Defensively, the Spartans yield just 63.9 ppg and they own a league-best +9.7 rebounding margin.

Demetri McCamey put forth a solid all-around effort in Illinois' eight-point win over Iowa earlier in the week, finishing with 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Mike Tisdale added 14 points and seven boards from his center position, while D.J. Richardson chipped in 11 points for the Illini, who shot 44.7 percent from the field and held the Hawkeyes to a mere 29.6 percent. Illinois, which picked up the victory despite being outrebounded (38-32) and forcing only nine turnovers on the night, more than doubled up Iowa in points in the paint (30-14). McCamey has started 21 of Illinois' 23 games this season, and leads the team in both scoring (15.1 ppg) and assists (142) -- the latter figure nearly tripling the effort of his closest teammate. Tisdale produces 11.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, and Richardson, a 44.4 percent three-point shooter, and Mike Davis round out the team's double-digit scorers with 11.1 and 10.5 ppg, respectively. As a team, the Illini own favorable margins in scoring (+7.2), rebounding (+2.9) and turnovers (+0.6).

Is it possible for MSU to drop a second straight conference game after opening 9-0? Sure, but don't expect it to happen as Izzo will rally his troops and get them back on track with a hard-fought, yet satisfying Big Ten road win.