One possible question coming into this game may have been Michigan State’s ability to focus after a nice win at Washington and against a hurting Oregon team who had to play without injured starters Jackson Shelstad and Nate Bittle. That question seemed to be put to rest early on before it wasn’t.
Oregon struggled to get things going on their offensive end while the Spartans got contributions from their entire starting five in the first five minutes. Divine Ugochukwu drove into Oregon’s matchup zone
and found Carson Cooper for a layup, which started MSU’s scoring. Coen Carr added a triple, Jeremy Fears pushed to the rim and finished, Jaxon Kohler had a putback bucket, and four more points from Cooper made it 13-4 Spartans with 14:41 left.
The script flipped, however, after the first media timeout as Takai Simpkins got Oregon back into the game, starting by knocking down a three pointer. Next, Simpkins stole the ball from Fears, got fouled at the rim, and hit both free throws. Simpkins’ mini-run got Oregon to nine points while MSU was still stuck with 13 at the 12 minute mark.
During the second media timeout, Kur Teng appeared to draw Tom Izzo’s frustration for MSU’s drop off with some criticism of his defense. Then, when the teams returned to the floor, the Ducks continued to draw closer. Simpkins added a jumper and another three for Oregon. Drew Carter also added a three. Even worse for the Spartans, Kohler picked up his second foul and went to the bench at the 8:14 mark. MSU managed to stay in the lead, barely, at 21-20 at the 7:24 mark.
But the Spartans brought on the under-eight media break with a shot clock violation and now they were the team really struggling to score.
After the break, Oregon took the lead on a layup from Luke Johnson. Trey Fort gave it back to the Spartans, 25-22, with two jumpers but MSU was no longer getting anything in the paint. Ugochukwu added a three for MSU, which came off Fears’ first, and only, assist of the first half.
Ege Demir got the Ducks within two, at 28-26, and that’s how the half would finish after yet another shot clock violation from the Spartans.
After 13 points in the first 5:19, Michigan State was outscored by Oregon 22-15 the rest of the way. And, after only five turnovers against Washington, MSU was already up to seven tonight. The Spartan bench was also having an off night. Fort provided the only four points for MSU’s reserves in the first half after the bench put up 31 at Washington.
Cooper led MSU with nine at the break and Carr added eight. Simpkins’ 10 led all scorers after the first 20 minutes.
Michigan State was winning the points in the paint battle 12-8 at halftime but seemed to be settling for jump shots, that is when they could even get a shot off, for much of the first half.
After Fears missed an open three to start the second half, the Spartans appeared a little more determined to work the ball inside. Ugochukwu was able to work his way into the paint for a hoop and Cooper hit an open jumper after Carr drove to the paint, drew the defense in, and dished to Cooper. Carr added another three but Wei Lin also hit one for the Ducks. Simpkins added two buckets for Oregon and MSU was still up only two, 35-34, after the first media break.
Oregon took the lead back and then extended it to 38-35 with buckets from Kwame Evans and Demir. The Spartans were then able to take advantage of consecutive Ducks’ turnovers to take it back with a Cooper turn around jumper in the paint and another midrange from Fort.
In another blow to Oregon’s depth, Demir went down hard after MSU took the lead and went to the locker room with what appeared to be a shoulder injury. Demir did return to the bench a few minutes later but did not re-enter the game.
When play resumed, Fort stayed hot for the Spartans, preventing another turnover with a triple late in the shot clcok. Lin responded for Oregon though and MSU’s lead was just 42-41. Two layups from Cooper – the first on a nice reverse and the second on a drive and dish from Carr – put MSU back up 46-41 and forced an Oregon timeout with 9:30 left.
The Spartans were able to continue a little momentum from there. An inside-out Kohler to Fears triple made it 49-42 and then two second-chance buckets from Carr extended the lead to double digits at 53-42. An Evans jumper briefly stopped the MSU run but a hook from Cooper got the lead back to 11 with 6:24 left.
The MSU lead extended to 62-46, sparked by another drive into the zone from Ugochukwu, another three from Fears, and a lob to Cam Ward. But Oregon was going to fight to the end. Oleksandr Kobzystyi’s three got the Ducks a little closer, at 62-49 with 3:18 left.
Fears closed the door from there though. He hit a tough runner with 2:33 left and then added a couple of free throws and another jumper. The subs came in with 1:05 to go and it finished with a 68-52 Spartan victory.
Michigan State improves to 17-2 overall, 7-1 in the Big Ten, and returns home to face Maryland on Saturday.
The Good
- Let’s start with the obvious – the year’s 2-0 West Coast trip was a lot better than last year’s
- Trey Fort scored 9 in 15 minutes on 4-5 shooting for MSU. He had been quiet for a while so it was nice to see him contributing again.
- Fears woke up in time to spark the Spartans when they needed it, but . . .
- Cooper was solid the whole way. He had 19 on 8-10 shooting, both close to the basket and from the mid-range, and added 7 boards.
- Carr hit some threes, had a nice drive and dish, and got some offense going again with 15 points.
- I liked Ugochukwu being aggressive with the drive and converting a few times.
- Oregon missed some open shots but holding a team to just 52 on their home floor seems good.
The Bad
- We let the foot off the gas, big time, after a pretty solid start and then . . .
- Dinked around for a long time, settled for jump shots, and had a hard time getting anything inside for a while against an injury-depleted Oregon team that is under .500.
- Just 2 points – on just 3 shots from Kohler. How can that be?
- At some point soon, we’re going to need to see consistent production from this team, not just in spurts, and I don’t think we got that tonight.
