Michigan St 68, Ilinois 65

EAST LANSING, Mich., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Freshman Paul Davis scored a season-high 15 points and Sophomore Chris Hill converted a clutch 3-pointer with less than a minute left Sunday to help the Michigan State Spartans to a 68-65 victory over No. 14 Illinois in a Big Ten Conference battle.

The win was the second over a ranked conference rival in less than a week for Michigan State (12-8, 4-4), which beat No. 20 Indiana, 61-54, on Tuesday.

In that game, the Spartans held Indiana's Bracey Wright, who was averaging 19.1 points, to four points in 29 minutes. On Sunday, they held Illinois forward Brian Cook to 13 points, eight below his season average. Cook scored nine of his points in the first eight minutes.

The 6-11 Davis, who totaled 16 points in his last four conference games, helped in defending Cook in the lane and provided an unexpected offensive spark.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Illinois (15-4, 5-3), which fell 1 1/2 games behind Purdue and one behind Michigan in the conference standings.

Kelvin Torbert converted a pair of free throws to give Michigan State the lead for good at 63-62 with 2:36 left. After Sean Harrington missed a 3-pointer for Illinois, Davis hit a short jumper from the right side with 1:52 remaining.

Cook made a pair of free throws with 1:24 left to pull Illinois within a point. But Hill connected on a 3-pointer from the right side to increase the lead to 68-64 with 58 seconds remaining.