After a disappointing and turnover-filled performance Monday in Lincoln, NE, Michigan State returned home to face USC, just one of just four Big Ten teams (including the B1G tournament) to have defeated
the Spartans last year.
It was the Izzone Alumni Night at the Breslin Center and the Spartans took the floor with Divine Ugochukwu at the two guard spot again, joining established starters Jeremy Fears, Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, and Carson Cooper.
Unfortunately the Spartans resumed where they left off against Nebraska – struggling on offense. The USC defensive game plan left Carr wide open beyond the arc and dared him to shoot. Carr misfired on two triple tries and a mid-range baseline jumper but his emphatic dunk got MSU on the board. The jam came almost three minutes into the game and MSU trailed 5-2 at the 15:49 mark.
The Spartans started to find some traction after the first media timeout, however, while USC primarily settled for threes and committed turnovers for the next several minutes. A Kohler contested jumper and a Ugochukwu to Cooper lob gave the Spartans their first lead at 6-5. A runner from Kur Teng and a triple from Jordan Scott contributed to a 13-7 MSU lead at the 10:15 mark.
Fears took advantage of the USC defense sagging into the paint and hit a midrange jumper to put MSU up 15-9. Fears followed that with a drive and pull up from the elbow and then Cam Ward converted an offensive rebound into a dunk had MSU extending its lead to 19-11 with 7:47 left in the first half.
As the Spartans locked down on the defense – USC was just 4-23 from the field at this point – Carr finally made them pay with an elbow jumper at the other end. Kohler followed that with two three pointers and forced a USC timeout at 5:22 after MSU went up 27-11.
Michigan State got the lead as high at 19 points in the first half before the Trojans closed the gap to 33-17 at the break. SC’s Ezra Ausar broke the Izzone’s hearts when he failed to miss two free throws in a row, denying the crowd free chicken nuggets.
The Trojans finished the half just 6-28 from the floor while MSU hit 44% of their shots. USC hung in on the glass, with each team pulling down 19 rebounds, but the Spartans only committed four turnovers while USC coughed it up nine times, which led to nine points for Michigan State.
USC came out of the locker appearing determined to get the ball into the paint on offense. It worked briefly as Jacob Cofie and Chad Baker-Mazara both worked free for buckets in the lane. But Coen Carr had an aggressive response for Michigan State. He took an interior pass from Kohler and converted it into a highlight reel dunk and one, which got the MSU lead back up to 19 at 42-23. After the teams exchanged turnovers, Fears went aggressively to the hoop before finding Teng with a behind-the-back pass for a layup. It was 46-26 MSU at the 16:58 mark.
Consecutive coast-to-coast drives by Fears gave the Spartans their biggest lead at 52-28. After Teng hit an elbow jumper and a nice screen and roll dunk from USC’s Ausar, Carr passed up another wide open triple to take it to the rim and convert. It was 56-33, Spartans, with 11:36 to go.
Denham Wojcik got his first career bucket for the Green & White with a steal and layup to extend the lead to 58-33. A few minutes later, Wojcik found Ugochukwu for a corner three that maintained the MSU lead at 25. Ausar did his best to keep USC in the game by working hard for offensive rebounds and interior buckets. His efforts produced five points and cut slightly into the lead, which was 64-42 with 8:20 to go.
The Spartans led 72-48 at the last media timeout with 3:45 to go but an out-of-reach game still managed to provide some excitement. USC’s Jerry Easter TWICE missed his first free throw attempt but made the second, denying the hungry Izzone Alumni the free chicken they clearly deserved.
Then, in a really odd moment, a referee stopped play with 6:01 to go point out an unruly fan. The offender was asked to leave, with Tom Izzo’s support apparently. It didn’t take a lip reader to figure out that Izzo was asking the fan “What the **** are you doing?” as he was being led away from his seat. He must have really been upset regarding the three-peat chicken denial.
It finished with an 80-51 MSU victory, but not before Nick Sanders and the Walton Twins took the floor. After some early struggles, Carr led MSU 18 points. Kohler was next with 16 on a perfect 6-6 from the floor and 3-3 from the line. Fears scored 15 and added seven assists. Ausar led USC with 16 but the Spartans limited Chad Baker-Mazara to just four points on six field goal attempts.
MSU improves to 13-2 and 3-1 in conference. Northwestern is next up for the Spartans, as they will visit Breslin on Thursday.
