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MSU-Illinois: A game-winning dunk, Cassius Winston’s defense with shoe and scary injury to Ayo Dosunmu come in closing 10 seconds

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Rarely does a college basketball game have three different storylines arise from the final ten seconds, but that’s what occurred in Champaign late Tuesday night. A thrilling game between Michigan State and Illinois ended in unbelievable fashion.

Michigan State was entering the last 30 seconds of Tuesday night’s B1G clash trailing Illinois 69-68 with possession of the basketball. Cassius Winston drove to the basket and missed a layup, but Xavier Tillman was unguarded on the follow up, grabbing the rebound and slamming it home with just over :06 left in the game.

On that play, Winston actually lost his shoe, picked it up, and continued to run down the floor and play defense while holding the sneaker while the Illini attempted to hit a game-winner of their own. But a scary moment for Illinois as time expired prevented it from getting a final shot off.

Ayo Dosunmu, moving at full speed, stopped suddenly and his knee appeared to buckle as he attempted to change direction. Dosunmu fell immediately to the floor and time expired, giving the Spartans a 70-69 victory. The Illinois star remained the floor for a few minutes and had to be assisted back to the locker room.

The extent of Dosunmu’s injury was not immediately known after the game, but the injury didn’t look good.

Below is the clip of those final moments from Tuesday nights’ game:

Michigan State snapped a three-game losing streak with the road victory, staying alive in the B1G race. The Spartans are now 9-5 in B1G play, 1.5 games back of first in the standings. They are 17-8 overall.

Illinois dropped to 8-5 in conference play, two games out of the top spot. The Illini are 16-8 overall after suffering a third-straight loss.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB