Ladd said. "I wanted to come here, have a good effort and give ourselves a chance to win, and we did that." The Sharks tied it later in the second

CHAMAPIGN, Ill. Wholesale Pelicans Jerseys . -- Coming to Illinois on Saturday, a long list of milestones were on the line for Michigan State. Best start in team history. A chance for Tom Izzo to move up the ladder of Big Ten coaching wins. And, oh yeah, the top spot in the conference standings to protect. The Spartans (17-1, 6-0 Big Ten) checked off all those boxes, holding off Illinois in a sometimes frustrating, physical contest, 78-62. Izzo, who moved past Illinois Lou Henson and into the No. 4 spot on the list of all-time Big Ten wins with 215, called the victory a sign of progress. "Were getting there," he said. "Were gutting things out. Were better defensively than we were a month ago, were better rebounding than we were a month ago." No Spartans team before this one started with 17 wins in its first 18 games. The shot at that served as motivation, said Denzel Valentine, who had a game-high 11 rebounds and 15 points. "We kept saying, Lets make history," he said. While Michigan State won its 10th straight, Illinois (13-6, 2-4) has now lost four in a row. The frustration was apparent during several loud exchanges between coach John Groce and officials. The last one earned him a technical foul. But Groce said Michigan State was just better. "Todays issue wasnt fight; todays issue was we ran into a really, really good basketball team," he said. Izzo said he talked with Henson, who was at the State Farm Center, before the game, but downplayed moving into the No. 4 spot. Bob Knight holds the No. 1 spot with 353. "Its nice," Izzo said. "Im going to call Bob and make sure he realizes theres no worries. Nobodys catching him." Michigan State owned the boards early against the Illini, outrebounding them 24-10 over the first 20 minutes. The Spartans used that edge to open up a 10-point lead by halftime and held the Illini at arms length the rest of the night. Gary Harris had a game-high 23 points and Keith Appling added 15 for the Spartans. Tracy Abrams led Illinois with 15 points. Illinois closed to within six at 59-53 with 6:11 in the game on a pair of free throws by Abrams. But almost as quick as those shots sparked a little hope for Illinois, Appling snuffed it out with a long 3-pointer from the top of the arc. "For whatever reason, we fell down in the zone," Groce said. "Appling made a big shot." Michigan was up 62-53 with 5:43 to play, and with the Illini shooting a tepid 37.7 per cent and unable to drum up many second chances, Michigan was comfortably out front. The Spartans played without 6-10 centre Adreian Payne, out for a third consecutive game with an ankle injury. But against an Illinois team with little inside presence, they didnt seem to need him. "We learned to play without him," Harris said. "Some other guys stepped up. Were building a deeper team." Michigan State outrebounded Illinois 38-25. Valentine was at times dominant, particularly in the first half. He had nine rebounds by halftime and held Rice to 12 points. Rice entered as the conferences second-leading scorer, averaging 17.7 points a game. The Spartans also made the most of their shots, sinking 55.8 per cent of them. Illini big men Nnanna Egwu and Maverick Morgan had a combined five rebounds and four points. Egwu hasnt scored in his past two games in spite of starting both and playing 55 minutes. Groces frustration has been growing with the losing streak. After Wednesdays loss to Purdue he charged toward officials to complain about calls. Early in the first half Saturday night, he shouted across the court at his own team after a miss, "I didnt want that!" He then turned and slammed his fist into the scorers table in front of the Illinois radio crew. Late in the game, after several confrontations with officials, he threw his suit jacket and was called for a technical foul. Groce declined to discuss his exchanges with officials or their calls, but both he and Izzo said they believe there are problems with how rule changes designed to increase scoring are being called. "In my opinion, its completely different than maybe what I saw on the (NCAA) video that was sent to me in the fall," Groce said. "I think everybodys confused," Izzo added. "Its hard on everybody." Illinois has a tough road ahead with its next four at No. 11 Ohio State, at Indiana and then at home against No. 14 Iowa and No. 3 Wisconsin. The Spartans play their next two at home, Tuesday against Indiana and Jan. 25 against Michigan. Authentic Jrue Holiday Jersey . -- Jacksonville Jaguars rookie receiver Marqise Lee has agreed to terms on a four-year contract worth more than $5 million. Pelicans Jerseys China . The Sioux Falls Canaries scored two in the seventh and three more in the eighth to come back from a 3-0 deficit and defeat the Winnipeg Goldeyes 5-3 in front of 6,769 at Shaw Park on Sunday afternoon. http://www.cheappelicansjerseysauthentic.com/ . Louis Cardinals placed outfielder Allen Craig on the 15-day disabled list with a right knee contusion on Sunday.SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The San Jose Sharks squandered another chance to open up their lead over the Anaheim Ducks. Tobias Enstrom scored a power-play goal with 3:36 remaining in the third period to help the Winnipeg Jets deal a blow to San Joses chances to finish in first place by beating the Sharks 4-3 on Thursday night. "Weve let some teams that are not as good in the standings beat us and take points away, for whatever reason Im not sure," captain Joe Thornton said. The Sharks have lost six games since the Olympic break, all to teams that would not be in the playoffs if the season ended now. San Jose still holds a two-point lead over Anaheim in the Pacific Division but the Ducks have three games in hand. "We cant give away points," forward Joe Pavelski said. "Weve given away a few too many lately. They got the games in hand. If they do their job theyll be there but theres still quite a bit of hockey left." Dan Boyle, Brent Burns and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks, who have lost four of six. Antti Niemi made 27 saves for San Jose. Blake Wheeler added a goal and two assists for the Jets, who trail Phoenix by nine points in the race for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien also scored, and Al Montoya made 27 saves. "We talked about the playoff race for the first time tonight," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "Its a long hill to climb but this is the way we need to play every night." Couture scored the tying goal in the second period for San Jose but then committed the penalty that led to the game-winner when he shot the puck over the glass while trying to kill a penalty. The Sharks managed to kill 11 seconds of the 5-on-3 but couldnt kill the second penalty when Wheeler slid a pass to a pinching Enstrom, who beat Niemi. "Were a long shot coming into the building against arguably the best team in the league," Wheeler said. "We just tried to make one more play than they did and it worked out for us." The Jets took a 3-2 lead by scoring twice in the first 10 minutes of the secondd period. Authentic Solomon Hill Jersey. The equalizer came early when Wheeler skated into the offensive zone and fired a bad-angle shot at Niemi from along the goal line that somehow sneaked into the net. Winnipeg took its first lead after Thornton negated a San Jose power play with a tripping penalty. Just seconds after Paul Postma came out of the box to give the Jets a power play, Wheeler slid a perfect pass to Byfuglien, who beat Niemi with a one-timer for his 20th goal. "Our power play was kind of sloppy but we were able to pull together a couple of times and set it up," Ladd said. "I wanted to come here, have a good effort and give ourselves a chance to win, and we did that." The Sharks tied it later in the second when they capitalized on another power-play chance. James Sheppards slap shot deflected off Coutures thumb and into the net to give San Jose its fifth power-play goal in two games. Couture also got his 20th goal in his return to the lineup after missing one game with an injury from blocking a shot on Monday in Calgary. The Sharks opened the scoring less than 2 minutes into the game when Sheppard sent a pass from the point that deflected off Marty Havlats stick and right to Boyle, who beat Montoya with a backhand for his first goal in 30 games. The Jets answered just 36 seconds later when Ladd put in a rebound of Michael Froliks shot for his 22nd goal. It came in Ladds first game back after missing Mondays tilt in Dallas for the birth of his daughter. "Theres a little bit of energy in the building, and bang its gone," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "They come right back down and score and we have to start all over. That was probably a bit of a turning point, may have been an indication of things to come." San Jose went back in front late in the period on Burns power-play goal. NOTES: Thornton became the 100th player to play in 1,200 career NHL games. ... Former Sharks F Devin Setoguchi was a healthy scratch for the Jets. ... 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