Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo said, before facing Loyola Chicago in Wednesday afternoon’s opener of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, that he hoped the Spartans put their turnover problems in the past.
Turns out those issues multiplied in transit to the Bahamas.
Yet when the Spartans needed some stability, scoring and strength, they went to their veterans. And Marcus Bingham Jr., Malik Hall and Gabe Brown delivered.
Bingham’s alley-oop dunk with 3.4 seconds to play off a drive-and-lob from Tyson Walker gave MSU a gritty, grinding and ugly 63-61 victory.
HEADED TO PARADISE:Spartans finding their depth
POLL POSITION:MSU still not ranked
BATTLE 4 ATLANTIS SCHEDULE:The Spartans’ path in the Bahamas
Hall and Brown combined for 25 points in the second half to help MSU recover from a five-point halftime deficit and overcome tying a season-worst 20 turnovers. However, the Spartans committed just one turnover in the final 10 minutes and none in the final 5:30to recover for the victory.
“I was happy with the win,” Izzo said afterward via Zoom. “It was a great play by Tyson, and Marky went up and got it like a man. … You just can’t turn the ball over like we did. I’m not saying we could have won going away, but we could have won the game easier than we did. Because it wasn’t very easy.”
MSU (4-1) faces the winner of Wednesday’s second game, between No. 21 Connecticut and No. 22 Auburn, at noon Thursday.
Hall and Brown combined for 13 straight points to rally MSU from a 28-23 halftime deficit, with Hall’s layup off a Max Christie assist giving the Spartans a 41-40 lead to set up a back-and-forth ending.
Hall, the 6-foot-7 junior forward making his second straight start, made all nine of his shots and finished with a career-high 24 points. That included a 3-pointer with 1:37 to play, but Loyola’s Braden Norris answered to tie the game 61-61 with 1:20 to play.
“(Izzo) has been harping on energy a lot for me, so I think the past week or so since before we left, I just tried to bring as much energy as possible in practice, on the plane, wherever we’re at,” Hall said. “And I think paid off listening to him. Probably should do it more.”
Bingham’s career-best seventh block shot gave MSU the ball with 16.3 seconds remaining, as Izzo called timeout. When play resumed, Walker drove into traffic, then lofted the ball, as defenders converged, to the 7-footer for the slam. A half-court heave by Loyola fell short and wide right as Bingham altered Norris’ shot.
“The play was for Tyson, and I think he read it and came off and saw me wide open,” said Bingham, who finished with 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds with his seven blocks. “I just went up and caught it.”
Brown was scoreless in the first half after picking up his second foul early, but he returned after halftime to hit three 3-pointers early for his nine points. Brown and Bingham are seniors, and Hall is a junior.
“It is good when your veterans grow,” Izzo said. “Everybody’s looking at transfers and freshmen and all these superstars, and yet homegrown people are usually the ones that you win with in the end.”
The Spartans jumped out to a fast 9-0 lead in the first 4:40, with Bingham’s three blocks on Loyola’s first three possessions setting an early tone. He also hit a hook shot, and Walker hit a 3-pointer before the first media timeout.
Then things turned drastically, with the Ramblers continuing to work the ball into the paint and chip away at MSU’s lead while Bingham rested. Then the Spartans started getting sloppy with the ball, which resulted in a momentum-swinging 28-10 Loyola run to take the lead.
MSU committed nine turnovers in 10 possessions and gave the ball away 10 times over that 4:29 segment. Walker had two before picking up his second foul, then Hoggard gave it away on three straight possessions. Christie coughed it up two more times, the second of which led to a 3-pointer from Loyola’s Keith Clemons in transition that capped a 10-0 burst.
The Spartans had 14 first-half turnovers that turned into eight Loyola points. They are now giving up the ball 15.8 times and allowing opponents to score 15.2 points a game off them. Walker and Hoggard combined for nine turnovers Wednesday from the point guard position.
“Hey, Thanksgiving — we’re givers. We just gave it to them,” Izzo said. “I mean, they did a good job, too, don’t get me wrong. But we gave them many of those turnovers, and some of them were for touchdowns as I say.”
Hall and Bingham got the final two baskets of the half on strong takes to the rim to go into the half down five. Those two combined for 16 points and 10 rebounds, with Bingham blocking four shots while Brown sat all but 4 minutes in foul trouble.
“We all went into the locker room, and I think it was really a team thing. Everybody knew that we hadn’t played well, and everybody on the team said something – from the last dude on our bench to the first dude on our bench,” Hall said. “I think really as captains, me and Gabe, we really honestly didn’t have to say much. But we still said our piece and just made sure that everybody knew that we had to lock back in so we could win the game.”
Lucas Williamston scored 16 points to lead the Ramblers, whose first-year coach Drew Valentine is a Lansing native and former MSU graduate assistant who also played and coached at Oakland. Valentine’s brother, Denzel, was national player for the year with the Spartans in 2016, and their father, Carlton, was one of the first players Izzo recruited as an assistant for Jud Heathcote.
“A big-time college basketball game, a fun atmosphere to play in. This tournament is incredible,” said Drew Valentine, who at 30 is the youngest head coach in DIvision I. “But you don’t get participation trophies for losing a game like that. There’s no moral victories for us with with where this program is at.”
MSU held the Ramblers to just 37.3% shooting, including 7-for-20 from 3-point range, and forced 14 turnovers. Particularly with how many turnovers went the other direction in transition, Izzo said he was pleased with how his defense played in the comeback victory.
“It’s just the shame some of the turnovers we had. We’re just gonna have to keep working on it,” he said. “Our defense was good enough.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
