The Illini offense did not show up in Wednesday’s loss to No. 8 Michigan State, scoring only 42 points.

It took the offense over two minutes to put its first tally on the scoreboard, then the Illini were stuck on 14 points for over six minutes in the first half, managing only 20 points in the first half.

The offense did not improve in the second half, only posting 22 points and recording one basket in a five minute span from 8:05 to 3:55 remaining in the game.

Some of the Illini’s offensive woes could be credited to Michigan State’s tough defense. The Spartans pride themselves on playing tough match-up defense. Their defense allows only 59 points per game and Wednesday night was the fourth time this season the Spartans have allowed less than 50 points.

“We came out very aggressive,” said Michigan State head coach Joanne McCallie. “We wanted to be aggressive but not over extended.”

Even though the Spartans have one of the toughest defenses in the Big Ten, the Illini did not come in with any sense of urgency on offense.

For most of the night, the Illini were unable to get into their plays until 10 seconds remained on the shot clock, forcing them to hurl up bad shots.

“We need to get into our offense quicker,” said senior guard Tiffanie Guthrie. “We cannot walk to a position; we have to sprint. That was basically what that was about.”

The Illini were not able to run on the Spartans. The Illini only came away with six fast break points on Wednesday night.

That was the Spartans’ game plan going into the game.

“We did a pretty good job at that,” McCallie said. “They are capable of more than that. We didn’t allow them any second shots and took away their ability to penetrate. We are very pleased with 42 against a very good team.”

Coming into the game, the Spartans wanted to slow down Illini senior forward Angelina Williams , who leads the Big Ten in scoring, and Guthrie, who averages double digits in points.

“We used the box-and-one and the traingle-and-two on them,” McCallie said. “We just wanted our team to have the awareness of where number 22 and number 33 were at all times, because they are such outstanding players.”

Williams and Guthrie scored 12 apiece, but the rest of the team only managed 18 points.

“We don’t feel we have to carry the team,” Guthrie said. “We know there is a lot expected from us and we don’t mind that. If we are able to get more help from our teammates and if they could contribute on a consistent basis, we could be unstoppable.”