EAST LANSING — With each successive layup for Michigan State basketball, with each successive fast-break opportunity following wayward entry passes and clanged jumpers from Michigan basketball, the referee patrolling the sideline turned and looked at coach Juwan Howard.
Time after time Saturday afternoon he glanced in Howard’s direction just waiting for timeout signals he knew were coming.
“You can’t just burn them all at once,” Howard said.
He tried to stop the bleeding on more than one occasion as U-M lost its footing in a game that was highly competitive in the first half. But the Wolverines imploded after the break, repeatedly turning it over on passes into the post and missing open 3-pointers. Howard’s team scored just three points in the first eight minutes of the second half to fall behind by an insurmountable margin.
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A back-and-forth battle had devolved into a landslide as chants of “N-I-T! N-I-T!” serenaded Michigan while MSU cruised to a 83-67 win over its archrival. The Spartans racked up 28 points in transition as they literally and metaphorically ran away from the Wolverines, capturing the game by playing at a vastly different tempo. Poor outside shooting (3 of 19 from 3-point range) and a flurry of second-half turnovers unzipped Howard’s team to snap a three-game winning streak.
Center Hunter Dickinson scored 25 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead the Wolverines. Fellow big man Moussa Diabate (11 points) and small forward Caleb Houstan (11 points) were the only other players to reach double figures in scoring.
Michigan shot 37.1% percent from the field and turned it over 13 times.
“I think just defensively we weren’t locked in all the way,” Dickinson said. “And I think that’s a theme for us, you know? In the second half we don’t usually play a full 20 minutes. Sometimes we just have some mental lapses that open the game up for the other team. I think today was an example of that and something that we need to fix before we want to make any run at anything.”
The first half resembled an informal game of two-on-two, with Dickinson and Diabate scoring 23 of 35 points for Michigan while Max Christie and Malik Hall combined to score 25 of 39 for Michigan State. What troubled the Wolverines was how each duo manufactured its offense, and more specifically where it originated on the floor.
For every reverse layup and baseline spin from Diabate, for every methodical hook shot and free throw from Dickinson, the Spartans had answers beyond the arc. Christie, the prized freshman for coach Tom Izzo, shot 3 of 4 from 3-point range in the opening half. And Hall, who came off the bench to immediately influence the game, buried both of his attempts from long range.
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The idea of trading 2-pointers for 3-pointers is nothing new for Michigan, which has been plagued by inconsistent perimeter shooting most of the season. Houstan entered Saturday’s game having made 11 of his last 16 shots from beyond the arc to rid himself of a shooting slump. His only 3-pointer of the first half was blocked and didn’t count as an official attempt.
The rest of his teammates were 1-for-8 from 3-point range, with the only connection from guard Eli Brooks, who had the middle finger on his left hand taped.
“Some of them were good shots,” Howard said, “and they didn’t go down.”
Frustration boiled over for Dickinson when he missed an open 3-pointer from the top of the key in the waning seconds of the half. It’s a shot he repeatedly buried in the win over Indiana and would have cut the MSU lead to one. Instead, the Spartans entered the break leading 39-35.
The offense stagnated in the second half as Michigan became overly reliant on Dickinson and Diabate. Possession after possession appeared labored as the guards dumped the ball into the big men and expected them to create something.
Such predictability lent itself to anticipatory defense from the Spartans, who began jumping the passing lanes. Two entry passes to Dickinson and one to Diabate resulted in turnovers that gave Michigan State opportunities in transition.
“In the second half, you know, we weren’t able to deliver it on time and on target,” Howard said. “Part of the physicality that I’m speaking of with Michigan State making adjustments and getting into our guys, letting them feel them.”
The roars grew louder with every additional turnover by the Wolverines, who gave the ball away eight times in the second half to fuel MSU’s red-hot 59.3% shooting. One of the loudest ovations was sparked by Jaden Akins diving to the floor for the kind of 50-50 ball the Spartans always seemed to snare.
With the ball secured, Akins flipped the ball to point guard Tyson Walker for a hit-ahead pass to Brown. A thunderous dunk sent the lead and the volume at Breslin Center out of control.
“We had low energy,” Howard said. “And that cannot happen on the road or any place. That simple.”
Contact Michael Cohen at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
