Less than 24 hours before tonight’s tipoff, we learned that Washington guard Desmond Claude wouldn’t be playing in this game, or any other, for the remainder of the Huskies’ season. Claude was limited by an ankle injury and missed some early games this season. He tried to return but never fully recovered and announced yesterday that he wouldn’t see the floor again this year.
Claude transferred to Seattle from USC, where he led the Trojans with 19 points in a victory against Michigan State – one of
only three regular season conference losses for the Spartans last year. While MSU avoided another matchup against Claude, they still faced a talented Washington roster, led by freshman forward Hannes Steinbach, who came in averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds per game.
Even though they were on the road, the Spartans donned their white 2000 national championship season throwback jerseys but had trouble slowing down the Washington interior offense in the early going. MSU forced a Steinbach turnover on Washington’s first possession but the Huskies went on to score 10 points in the paint, on 5-6 shooting, in the game’s first five minutes. Fortunately, the Spartans were able to mostly keep pace and were down only 10-9 at this point.
Michigan State went to their bench after the first media timeout and reserves came through. Jordan Scott hit a midrange jumper to put MSU up 11-10. Kur Teng followed with consecutive three pointers while the Spartans started to keep UW out of the paint on the other end. This led to a 21-13 MSU advantage at the 11:36 mark.
The Spartan lead extended to 28-18 at the 7:55 mark as Washington, after their 5-6 start from the field, had converted only two of their last nine shots. Even though Jaxon Kohler was struggling a bit with Washington’s late double teams, MSU was still able to find ways to score.
This included a nice up-and-under layup from Denham Wojcik, who briefly silenced the Spartan faithful who have been a bit critical of the Harvard grad transfer’s playing time. Unfortunately for Denham, he gave his bucket back to Washington on the Spartans’ next possession with a dreaded turnover-for-touchdown layup for the Huskies.
The Spartans recovered from the blunder as Jesse McCulloch added a triple and grew MSU the lead to 37-25 by the three minute mark as Washington had missed their last ten shot attempts.
The Huskies, however, were able to mount a bit of a charge before halftime. Two buckets from Zoom Diallo plus a Steinbach dunk for Washington and an elbow jumper from Scott for MSU made it 39-31 Spartans at the break.
Michigan State didn’t get a whole lot from three of their leaders in the first half. Jeremy Fears had five points but only two assists at the break. Kohler also had five points and Coen Carr had a single free throw. Carson Cooper had six while Kur Teng led MSU with eight.
Steinbach led UW with 11 while Diallo added nine points.
Both teams were abysmal from three point range as MSU hit just three of their 11 tries and Washington was even worse at 1-11.
Washington was hanging with the Spartans on the boards, trailing the rebounding battle only 19-16, and had a huge 24-12 scoring advantage in the paint.
Franck Kepnang started the second half scoring with a bucket for Washington. The Spartans responded with a triple from Carr and a fast break layup from Divine Ugochukwu to go up 44-33 before it was Washington’s turn to respond. Diallo and Steinbach kept the Huskies in it, down 46-39 at the 15:25 mark.
Washington continued to inch closer as Bryson Tucker hit only the Huskies’ second three of the day, but a timely one, to make it 48-42. UW added a free throw to get within five after Cam Ward was called for a flagrant one foul before Washington had even crossed the timeline.
Fortunately for MSU, Jeremy Fears took over before things got any more uncomfortable. Two drives, two UW fouls, and four Fears free throws had MSU back up nine at 52-43. Jeremy added a high glass layup and another runner to get the lead back to double digits at 56-45.
He wasn’t done yet. After Carr ripped a defensive rebound away from Steinbach, Fears found Cooper for sort of a tip-in Alley Coop. A bit later, two more Fears free throws gave MSU their biggest lead at 60-45 with 8:32 to go.
The teams pretty much traded buckets for the next few minutes before consecutive MSU buckets – an offensive rebound and putback from Ward and another driving layup from Fears – had the Spartans up 68-54. Diallo responded with another much needed triple for Washington and the MSU lead was 11 with 4:52 to go.
The Spartans closed the door from there though. Teng answered Diallo’s three with another one of his own on a nice inside-out from Cooper. Then, Coen Carr got his highlight dunk of the game off a lob from Fears. A turnaround from Scott in the paint had MSU up 75-57 with 3:13 left.
Tom Izzo called a timeout with 1:26 left to get some subs in, including Trey Fort, who hit a triple to give MSU 80 points. Who knows, maybe this otherwise insignificant move might be something that gets Fort some confidence going forward. The sixth year transfer began the year as MSU’s starting two guard but has lately struggled to crack the rotation.
It finished as an 80-63 Spartan win. Fears led all scorers with 19, including the important flurry after Washington had drawn with five points in the second half. Steinbach had 17 for Washington.
The Spartans were able to win despite a rough day from Kohler, who finished with only seven points on 3-11 shooting. Committing only five turnovers and extending the rebounding advantage to 39-28 for the game certainly helped MSU.
The Spartans are already off to a better start on their West Coast swing this year and will look to go 2-0 on Tuesday at Oregon.
