It was a horror story in Champagne, Ill.

Who scripts these things? Stephen King?

The University of Illinois handed Michigan a 66-51 loss Wednesday night and might have exposed a very big weakness for the Wolverines.

U-M might be a donut team. It has lots of tasty parts on the outside but it has a big hole in the middle.

Illinois attacked Michigan’s middle and it was a mismatch.

Michigan center DeShawn Sims had a miserable night. One of the leaders in rebounds in the Big Ten looked more like Pee Wee Herman in the middle. The 6-8 junior scored Michigan’s first four points in the game and then missed 11 of 12 shots. He had just seven points and two rebounds on the night Michigan scored a season-low 51 points.

Sims was 0-for-4 from three-point range.

His opponent had a field day. Illinois center Mike Tisdale scored a game-high 24 points, 18 after halftime. Ten days earlier, when Michigan defeated Illinois at Crisler Arena, Tisdale was benched because he couldn’t keep up with Sims. It was a complete turnaround Wednesday. Tisdale, at 7-foot-1, towered over Sims.

“He’s hard for us to play,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “We’re playing small, we’re not real big in the center and he’s just tough to stop. I knew he could shoot from the outside.”

Sims snapped his consecutive double-figure scoring mark at 16 games.

Michigan, ranked No. 25, may find it hard to remain ranked among the nation’s top 25. The Wolverines are 13-4 and 3-2 in league play. Illinois is 15-2, 3-1.

Michigan has lost 12 straight games at Illinois, last winning in 1995. The home team has won the last eight games in the series.

Michigan led the game at halftime, 31-30, and the game featured 11 lead changes and four ties.

But Illinois went on a 8-0 run with 13 minutes to play and the dagger to the heart was a three-pointer by Tisdale, his first beyond the arc all season.

“They just picked up the defensive intensity a lot more and they played us a lot differently than they did before,” said Michigan’s Laval Lucas-Perry. “We just didn’t make the shots we normally make.”

Manny Harris led Michigan with 20 points but he was the only real bright spot for the Wolverines. In the second half U-M shot a dreadful 21 percent from the field on 6 of 29. Five of those six baskets came from Harris.

The Wolverines return to Crisler Arena to host Ohio State on Saturday.