EAST LANSING — Tom Izzo shook up his lineup again. Michigan State basketball’s defense kept Penn State in check for the most part.
Then the Nittany Lions’ second-half 3-point shooting tested the Spartans’ resolve.
This time, with the help of a Penn State lane violation, they summoned up the energy or emotion to make winning plays down the stretch in a 60-58 escape Tuesday night at Breslin Center.
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The Nittany Lions’ Jamari Wheeler went over the line early on Joey Hauser’s 1-and-1 free-throw miss with 2:06 to play, and the MSU junior made both to tie the game at 58.
Aaron Henry scored 11 of his 20 points in the second half, but he kept an offensive possession alive with a rebound and pass to Marcus Bingham Jr., who made a pair of free throws with 1:18 left.
The teams traded possessions in the final minutes, Penn State missing a 3-point attempt and MSU’s Joshua Langford missing a free throw. But Myles Dread’s last-second heave to win it went wide, and a Penn State tip-in attempt to tie it came after the horn.
Bingham came up with six rebounds and six points — four of them on free throws — in the second half and finished with nine rebounds. Joey Hauser scored 11 points off the bench, and Malik Hall started and had 10 points and five rebounds to help MSU win its second straight.
Langford had five points to reach 1,000 for his MSU career. The Spartans made just 4 of 15 3-pointers and only 1 of 9 in the second half.
The Spartans (10-7, 4-7 Big Ten), who host No. 16 Iowa at 2:30 p.m. Saturday (Fox). MSU lost on the road to the Hawkeyes, 84-77, on Feb. 2, as part of a four-game losing streak.
Penn State’s Myreon Jones scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half as the Nittany Lions (7-9, 4-8) led by four points with 3:16 to play on his two free throws. But Rocket Watts answered with a tip-in, and Hauser got his second chance at the free throws to even things up.
MSU has won 12 of the last 14 meetings with PSU.
Sparking the rotation
Izzo continued to use a 12-man rotation but shook up his lineup for the second time in three games, with Hauser sitting for the first time this season. Hall, Foster Loyer, Langford, Henry and Bingham marked the ninth different MSU starting group in 17 games.
That lineup got the ball moving, and the move to bring Hauser off the bench sparked the junior forward’s offensive aggressiveness. Hall also attacked the basket early.
After getting an earful from Izzo for being lackadaisical on the final play of the first half, Henry got busy in the second and helped MSU overcome a 10 of 27 shooting drought.
Areas of emphasis
MSU did two things in the first half Izzo circled that needed to be fixed coming out of Saturday’s 66-56 win over Nebraska.
The Spartans fouled Penn State just six times in the first 20 minutes after committing 76 fouls in the previous three games, including 24 against the Huskers.
It flipped to open the second half. MSU got whistled for the first six fouls of the first 7:11 of the period, and the Nittany Lions picked up five free-throws as part of their 17-5 run to tie the game on a 3-pointer from Samuel Sessoms with 11:51 to play.
But the Spartans culled their physical play, relying on stingy defense late. MSU held the Nittany Lions without a field goal over the final 4:58 and just one in the final 6:15.
The Spartans also limited their turnovers against an aggressive Penn State defense, committing just 11 after giving it away a season-high 22 turnovers against the Cornhuskers. The Nittany Lions entered Tuesday ranked second in Big Ten play to Nebraska at 14.6 turnovers forced per game.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
