Spartans stay within striking distance of first place
The Big Ten season is approaching the end, meaning each game just grows in importance at this time of year. That was certainly the case tonight as we had a matchup of two teams separated by a half-game coming into this. Recent history has favored Purdue, as the broadcast was sure to remind us that the Boilermakers had won 8 of the last 9 in this series. They conveniently forgot to mention Zach Edey. And this one announcer for Peacock clearly has a beef with MSU as he boasted about predicting the loss to Indiana before saying that Purdue would win this by double digits.
The game got underway, and it was a bit of an odd first half. The MSU offense was clicking early, scoring 10 points by the time the first TV timeout rolled around. There was a dunk by Zapala, a triple by Jase, Cooper at the line, Kohler with a layup, and Carr with a dunk. Purdue’s offense was keeping up though, and the Boilermakers would stay locked in even as MSU’s offense went cold after the commercial. After scoring 10 points in just over four minutes, they needed another ten minutes to score their next ten. The only positive that came from that stretch of the game was MSU collecting fouls against Purdue, including a pair on Trey Kaufman-Renn. The Spartans were their typical selves, making 9 of 11 FTs in the first half. But Purdue had opened a six-point advantage, 26-20, at the under-4 timeout.
In that final segment of the first half, MSU’s offense came back to life and closed the half on a 13-5 run. There were similarities to this stretch of play and the end of our Illinois game, complete with stifling defense, particularly from Tre Holoman, and getting points off turnovers. And Carr had a second dunk here, a ridiculous alley-oop on a lob from Richardson which Carr had no human right to jump that high to get. Anyone else in the NCAA and it would have been a turnover. A poorly executed final possession kept MSU from padding their lead, so they went to the break leading by a bucket, 33-31.
Jase already was in double-digits by halftime with ten points while Carr and Zapala each had a half-dozen. After giving up some bad offensive rebounds early, MSU drew even on the boards after twenty minutes, and the Green & White had a big advantage in steals, taking five while only giving up one.
When the second half began, Michigan State wasted no time punching their guests in the mouth. Purdue opened on offense, but Richardson collected another Spartan steal, and on the other end, he drew Purdue’s first foul of the second half. A possession later, Jase would open the scoring with a fast break dunk. Back on the defensive end, Jaxon Kohler blocked a shot, one of his two on the night, and then, just as the commentator was saying that he had been quiet in this game, number zero splashed a three-point shot to give MSU their largest lead of the game. Moments later, after another defensive stop, Szymon Zapala finished an alley-oop layup while drawing a foul, and his FT made it a ten-point game. A quick 6-2 Purdue run after that made the game 43-37 at the under-16 timeout.
After the commercial break, it was Carson Cooper playing the hero and beating the shot clock on a broken play with a baseline jumper. On our next trip down the court, Frankie Fidler nailed a three, his first since January 19. That shot may have woken up a sleeping giant, as Fidler kind of took over the game after that. On Purdue’s next possession, Five Fingers stole the ball and took it all the way down the court for a one-handed jam. And Frankie would get another steal immediately afterwards which led to a reverse layup for Carr, making the score 52-39. Purdue’s Braden Smith would hit a three-pointer then to temporarily silence the Izzone, but they got something else to make noise about seconds later after an alley-Coop. Purdue again went on a short run and the game reached the under-12 with MSU leading 54-44.
After Jaxon Kohler scored on a putback to give MSU a 12-point cushion, Purdue came back with two straight triples to split the lead in half. The defense for both teams clamped up after that. MSU only would score one more basket before the next timeout, a Fidler layup after a loose ball scramble at the other end. The lead was 58-50 at the under-8.
Purdue got into the bonus on a questionable call when two of their guys appeared to get their feet tangled, but the call went against Zapala instead. After Kaufman-Renn hit both FTs, Holloman answered for MSU, sinking a circus shot and drawing the foul for a bonus point. Braden Smith answered with a three for Purdue, but MSU came right back and Coen Carr found Fidler across the lane with a pass off the drive for the easy layup. The basket gave Frankie 11 points on the night. The Spartan defense kept its chokehold on Purdue, and after another airball, the game went to the final commercial with MSU leading 63-57. Somehow, despite all of MSU’s dominance in the various box score categories, the Boilermakers were hanging around.
Cooper missed a pair of FTs to keep Purdue close, and TKR would bring his team to within four. Carson would make up for it after that with an alley-oop slam. TKR and Akins traded baskets after that, and then Akins drew an offensive foul for a moving screen to give the ball back to MSU with just under two minutes left in regulation. Tre Holloman made an acrobatic layup to put MSU up eight, and when Braden Smith missed a triple on the other end, Akins got fouled on the rebound (admittedly a weak call). From there, it was a bunch of free throws for the home team, and they would go 4-6 in the final minute and change. If it were not for a triple by Fletcher Loyer with 2 seconds remaining, MSU would have won by double-digits, the opposite of that one Peacock’s prediction prior to the game.
MSU prevailed 75-66. Let’s get to the lists.
3 Things I Liked:
1. Dunk City! MSU had 8 slams in this one, in addition to at least as many layups. MSU finished with 42 points in the paint. We usually excel in that category, but that is a high number even for us. Carr, Cooper, Zapala, and Fidler all got their dunk on in this one. None, of course, were as pretty as the Richardon-to-Carr alley-oop.
2. Suffocating defense. MSU had ten steals in this one, five in each half. Purdue’s Braden Smith was forced into six turnovers. That was equal to his assist count right up until he got a couple late helpers. Other than Smith and Kaufman-Renn, who accounted for 41 of Purdue’s 66 points, no one else was a factor. In fact, if it were not for that late three from Fletcher Loyer, no other Boilermaker would have had more than five points. We knew coming in that TKR would get points. We just needed to prevent Braden from being able to orchestrate his offense like he usually does, and we largely did that, making the rest of the team obsolete.
3. Fidler on the roof! I am tempted to call Frankie the player of the game. He finished with 11 points, one off the team lead. That was on 4-6 shooting. He chipped in with two boards, two steals, one assist, and zero turnovers. But most importantly, his sequence of a triple>steal>dunk>steal may have been the sequence that permanently swung the game in MSU’s favor. We always have someone different stepping up. Today it was Frankie.
3 Things I Did Not Like:
1. Peacock. Let’s start with these guys. Who is actually following the game for their broadcast. In both halves, they made mistakes with the foul counts. At least once, they changed the score wrong, awarding two points when it should have been three, though that was eventually corrected. That announcement during the game that the BTT would be on this streaming service made me upset… until the next MSU dunk happened.
2. Lack of communication. There were a few early plays where it was clear that our guys were not talking to each other out there. The first was an alley-oop attempt where both Kohler and Zapala went up for it. Neither of them got it as they bumped into each other, and the ball went out of bounds. Zapala got yanked to the bench after that. Shortly after that, MSU was on a break, and a cross-court pass was made to Akins as he was going to the basket, but Booker, was in the middle of the lane and thought it was for him. The pass deflected off Xavier’s fingers, but fortunately it still fell to Akins for the bucket. And on defense, there was an incident where Cooper and Fears got tangled with each other and Fears fell, giving up an open three. They cleaned things up after that, but those plays made for some ugly moments early.
3. Free throw shooting. Time for me to nitpick as there were not a lot of negatives in this game. But we only shot 15-21 from the line (71.4%). That’s way below our average.
VICTORY FOR MSU!