EAST LANSING, Mich. – Big Ten rivals Illinois and Michigan State entered Sunday’s match-up with the same conference record (1-2), the same inability to avoid early season injuries and the same type of gut-it-out play that coaches Bruce Weber and Tom Izzo are known for demanding.

While Illinois put up a gallant first-half effort, its 11-point halftime lead was erased over the next six minutes as Michigan State earned a 63-57 victory in front of 14,759 at the Breslin Center.

“We just kind of froze,” Weber said. “Deer in the headlights.”

The Spartans’ Izzo, who along with Weber continues to struggle with depleted line-ups, used a halftime speech to get his team to turn up its defensive pressure and to “leave it all out on the floor.”

It was the Illini’s defensive breakdown and lack of composure that left Weber bewildered, he said.

“Our defense just breaks down,” he said. “We come out of a timeout and we say, ‘Watch for the slip’ and boom, they get a slip for a dunk.”

The Illini (13-6) sit at 1-3 in the Big Ten for the first time since 2000, while Michigan State (14-5) moves to 2-2, and is still in search of its first conference road win.

Seniors Rich McBride (12 points, 4-of-9 three-point shooting) and Warren Carter (11 points, 1-of-9 from the field) led the Illini, while Drew Neitzel had a game-high 19 points and Goran Suton added 15 points for the Spartans.

As good as Illinois’ motion offense looked in the first half when McBride was hitting back-to-back three-pointers and Carter was getting to the free throw line, it made it easier to see the second period as one of Illinois’ worst halves of basketball in recent memory.

“You have to keep your poise, both when you’re winning and when things are going against you,” Weber said. “I think we got a little bit emotionally-drunk in the first half.”

McBride hit a three-pointer with 13:02 to play to give the Illini a 39-36 advantage, but over the next six and a half minutes, the Spartans turned that deficit into a 12-point advantage.

The Illini narrowed the lead to 59-56 with 0:53 to play after Chester Frazier (eight points, four assists and two rebounds), in a “superman effort,” converted on two lay-ups. A jumper and a pair of free throws by Neitzel sealed the deal.

“They run a lot of stuff for him; he’s their go-to-guy,” McBride said of Neitzel. “We tried to play him man-to-man and he made plays at the end.”

Izzo called the win against Illinois “a big, big win for us,” similar to what a road win for Illinois could have meant.

“Sometimes, in a season you need a win that you have to flat-out dig out and earn it more on guts, rather than skill. And I think at least we did that tonight,” Izzo said. “I do have to give credit to my team for that.”