EAST LANSING — Michigan State basketball needed a complete performance. And for the final 30 minutes, one Spartan after another delivered.
Marcus Bingham Jr. blocking shots and providing energy.
Max Christie hitting timely shots to overcome Michigan’s fast start.
Malik Hall playing aggressively through what he thought were two fouls to swing momentum.
Joey Hauser hearing chants of his name after big plays at both ends of the court.
A.J. Hoggard dissecting Michigan basketball’s defense like a seasoned veteran and setting up one teammate after another.
And so on.
The 10th-ranked Spartans ripped off a 25-8 run between the end of the first half and the start of the second to put together a dominating 83-67 victory over the Wolverines on Saturday afternoon at Breslin Center in the rivals’ first meeting of the season.
MSU (16-4, 7-2 Big Ten) overcame early rebounding and turnover problems and used a smothering defensive performance to lead by double digits almost the entire second half after falling behind by six early in the game. The Spartans led by as many as 20 with 3:05 to play, shooting nearly 60% for the half and 55.4% for the game.
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Christie scored 16 points, Hall had 15 and Hauser 14 points with eight rebounds. Hoggard had 11 points and 10 assists, Bingham blocked four shots and grabbed eight rebounds, and Gabe Brown scored nine. The Spartans, who travel to Maryland on Tuesday, had a 33-6 advantage in bench scoring and a 28-16 edge in transition and finished with 13 turnovers, just four after half.
The Wolverines (10-8, 4-4) shot just 37.1% overall, and the Spartans bottled them up from outside to just 3-for-19 (15.8%). Hunter Dickinson had 25 points on 8-for-19 shooting with six rebounds. Moussa Diabate and Caleb Houstan each scored 11 for the Wolverines, who finished with a 36-32 rebounding edge that included 16 offensive boards. But MSU limited U-M to just 10 second-chance points on those boards.
A number of the Spartans’ biggest foibles remained persistent throughout the first half, which featured seven ties and seven lead changes.
The Wolverines had a 20-14 scoring edge in the paint and beat the Spartans on the boards 21-17, including 10 offensive rebounds for U-M. Dickinson was 5-for-11 for 14 points with four rebounds, and Diabate had nine points and three boards. MSU also turned the ball over nine times that led to nine points for the Wolverines.
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But the Spartans shot the daylights out of the ball, hitting six 3-pointers and making 51.7% overall. And they continued to defend at an elite level, limiting the Wolverines to 36.1% shooting and 1-for-8 from 3-point range. Michigan also only got eight second-chance points off those offensive rebounds.
The Wolverines took their biggest lead at 14-8 when Hall picked up his second foul just over 5 minutes into the half. Christie hit his first of three first-half 3-pointers after that, then connected on another and was fouled for a four-point play with 9:21 to go that tied the score 18-all.
Izzo gambled right then and re-inserted Hall into the lineup despite his foul troubles, and the junior forward shifted the momentum to MSU’s favor while staying on the court the final 9:21.
Christie drained his third 3-pointer with 7:45 left and had 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the half. Then Hall took over with a tip in through contact for a three-point play that put the Spartans back in front.
After U-M reclaimed the lead, Hall scored MSU’s next eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers. And Tyson Walker drained a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left to send the Spartans into halftime leading, 39-35.
MSU had a 16-0 bench scoring advantage thanks to Hall’s 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting. And at halftime, refs reviewed and took away one of his fouls and ascribed it to Jaden Akins instead.
The Spartans came out of the break and pulled away quickly, opening on a 14-3 takeover burst. Hoggard had a pair of layups, including a pump-fake layup that sent Dickinson and Diabate flying. Hauser then hit a pair of 3-pointers, and Hoggard lobbed an assist to Brown for a one-handed dunk that had the Izzone roaring and chanting “NIT” and “Little Sister.”
Football players Keon Coleman and Maliq Carr made their hoops debuts with 30.6 ticks left and the win secured. And after freshman guard Coleman weaved through traffic and finished with an athletic layup for the Spartans’ final points, the Breslin fans started one more chant.
“Just like football.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
