Win streak now at 12
On Saturday afternoon, Big Ten Basketball descended on Manhattan for a matchup between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the #8 Michigan State Spartans. It was announced shortly before game time that one of Rutgers’ diaper dandies, Dylan Harper, would not be starting due to a bad ankle, though he was in uniform.
Trey got things started with a swished 3 on the first possession. MSU had a handful of empty possessions after that, allowing Rutgers to open up an early lead. To make matters worse, The Kohler Bear picked up two fouls in the opening minutes to challenge the rotation. At 10-3, Flight 55 ended the drought with a slash to the bucket for the layup and a trip to the FT line, where he finished the 3-point play. 1st commercial: 10-6 Rutgers.
Stretch scored on his first shot on a play featuring good ball movement. A split trip to the FT line by Flight 55 and a transition basket by Five Fingers got MSU back square. Flight 55 put MSU up 2 when he got open for a dunk, extending MSU’s run to 10-1. Stretch went 1-2 on a trip to the stripe, and after yet another defensive stop, J-Rich hit a corner 3 at the end of the shot clock to make it a six-point game. Oh, and at some point in this segment, Rutgers put Dylan Harper in the game. 2nd Commercial: 17-11 MSU.
Zapala-palooza! The big guy gets a bucket on a busted play. Two possessions, Five Fingers put back an offensive board for his second bucket. On defense, MSU had gotten a little foul-happy, but the home team could not take advantage. They had a streak of 11 straight misses. Back on the offensive end, Shakin Bakin got to the line and sank both to make it a 10-point game. Rutgers finally scored a FG, and then got a couple defensive stops. 3rd commercial: 23-15 MSU.
The Spartans’ mini-cold streak continued with a travel call on Nightmare. A Rutgers 3 got them within 5. Trey’s trey was all the way down and then decided to pop out, but after a missed layup by Harper, MSU pushed and J-Rich got the feed for the score and drew the foul for a bonus point at the stripe to regain the 8-point advantage. A couple of FTs, a three from the top of the key, and a Harper jumper made it a one-point game in a hurry, and Izzo called timeout. 4th commercial: 26-25 MSU.
Fingers missed a jumper, but then Rutgers committed a shot clock violation. The lid remained on the basket for MSU as Bakin’ missed two shots down low, but a quick interception by Fingers led to an easy score by Bakin’. An and-one on the other end tied the game at 28 with less than 2 minutes in the half. Flight 55 took off for an alley-oop to put MSU back up five. After a stop, J-Rich drew a shooting foul and doubled the lead to four. Rutgers answered with two FTs of their own, only for J-Rich to splash in a triple and force a scarlet timeout. They would score out of the huddle, but MSU had enough time to run one last play, though Stretch could not hit the triple. Halftime: 35-32 MSU.
J-Rich had 11 and Flight 55 had 8 at intermission. Neither team was shooting well, as they were both under 40% on FGs.
Just like the first half, Trey got the scoring going in the 2nd, this time on a baseline drive. The big guys would run a little two-man down-low action and Zapala-palooza fed The Kohler Bear for his first score. And Bakin got into the paint for a basket in traffic. But Rutgers’ offense was keeping pace with an answer each time. Nightmare drove from the top of the key and scored a layup. Under-16: 43-39 MSU.
J-Rich stayed active and scored on another drive. With the teams having traded sides, it looked like Rutgers may have been dealing with the lid. Coop Deville padded the lead with a turnaround hook shot. The Knights halved the lead down to four, but a Stretch jumper got it back to six. Under-12: 49-43 MSU.
Some ugly play to start the next segment, but Shakin’ sank a three, and after a block by Five Fingers, Trey ran the break and rolled it in. Rutgers called a timeout suddenly down ten. The break did not help, and MSU moved the lead to 12 when Flight 55 stuffed home a missed triple. A Za-foul put Rutgers on the line where they got the lead back down to ten, but more significantly, MSU had their seventh foul with over 9 minutes of play remaining. Flight 55 earned some more miles with a left-handed jam in transition after that, and then J-Rich added to his stats with another triple and a 13-point lead. After surrendering a layup, MSU would draw a foul and send the game to a break. Under-8: 61-50 MSU.
Stretch hit the FTs and then snagged the board on the other end. His hustle has been there today, even if his three-point shooting was not. While I am on the subject, Stretch added a powerful blocked shot, but he was not able to corral a feed on the other end, and MSU turned it right back over. On the next MSU possession, Coop was on the ground and someone tripped over him, but the refs thought it was Foster Loyer, so they called the foul on the MSU center. Ball don’t lie though, and Rutgers missed the front end. Under-4: 64-54 MSU.
Zapala-palooza! The big guy caught a lob pass under the basket and went back up for the finish. J-Rich scored again through contact. He’s having a pretty good day. With just under two minutes, Rutgers began fouling intentionally, first sending J-Rich to the line for two freebies. That put him up to 20 on the day, a career high. Jordan Derkack hit a three to make it an 8-point game. After back-to-back turnovers, Stretch got the ball all alone and finished with the monster dunk. But Rutgers came back with another triple, this one from Dylan Grant, to get the score within seven with 60 seconds on the clock. Izzo called timeout. If he drew up a play, it did not matter as Rutgers immediately fouled. Rutgers scored quickly, but then tried to play defense, only to foul with the shot clock running down. Nightmare went to the line and calmly hit both FTs. Derkack then hit another triple to get his team within six. The shot clock was off. MSU’s inbounds pass went into a double-team, so Izzo called another timeout. Flight 55 then was fouled and sunk his 13th and 14th points of the game. Derkack threw up an airball, but with ten seconds left, Rutgers was still fouling. Shakin’ Bakin’ added two more points at the line for the final points of the day for MSU. Bailey hit a triple before the buzzer to make the final score 81-74. The Spartans went into MSG and got the win.
Let’s get to the lists.
3 Things I Liked:
1. Assists. MSU won the assist battle 19-9. Rutgers only had four assists with about five minutes left in the game before some less-than-100% defense from MSU allowed some easier scores at the end. Rutgers was not getting any flow in their offense, and the overwhelming majority of their baskets were either on putbacks or isolation plays. Credit to MSU’s defense for that.
2. Rebounds. MSU won this battle 44-34. Flight 55 led the way with 8 boards, and no one else had more than five for MSU. Nothing more to say here.
3. Not giving up a career high to Ace Bailey. We knew coming in that Rutgers only had two guys they could rely on to score, and then we found out just before the game that one of them was going to be limited. Immediately, I assumed that the remaining player, Ace Bailey, would go off for 30+, but the Spartans mostly kept him in check. Bench player Jordan Derkack had a season-high 26, but not a career high, but he was clearly not a focal point for our defense.
3 Things I Did Not Like:
1. Turnovers. There were a lot of ball security issues today, and MSU ended with 15 giveaways. They only forced six on the other end. Eight different Spartans coughed it up at least once.
2. Three-point shooting. MSU shot 5-19 from deep. Bakin’ was 1-7 and Stretch was 0-4. If it were not for J-Rich going 3-4, it would have been even worse.
3. Single-digit game. Even though this game never really made me worry, I feel like this game should have been won by an even bigger final margin. It was not the best version of Izzo’s squad, but at least it was good enough to get the win.
VICTORY FOR MSU!!!
Also today, the Women’s Team went into ann arbor and secured a big victory of their own. They clobbered the opponent 88-58. Theryn Hallock led the way with 25 points, while Julia Ayrault and Grace VanSlooten each had 18. After trailing by four at halftime, MSU outscored them 59-25 after the break.
Speaking of games where the final score made it look like it was played 5-on-4, there was a big game in terms of the Big Ten standings last night. Purdue was hosting um in a battle for second place. Joyfully, um got blown out, 91-64. This game was a double-digit affair three minutes in, and the Boilermakers never looked back. In fact, it was obvious what would happen in the first 30 seconds, as Purdue’s Braden Smith stole the ball on um’s first two possessions. He was the man in this game, going for 24 points, ten assists, seven boards, and four steals. With this result, every other team in the Big Ten has at least two losses.