Spartans reach the new year with an 11-2 record
It was the final game day of the year at the Breslin as MSU welcomed their former assistant coach, Dwayne Stephens, and his new team, Western Michigan. Let’s get to the action.
Holloman hit a 3 to start things off. Western answers with a triple of their own. Kohler missed a 3 from the corner, and the Broncos missed one as well. But then Fears threw an interception adn Western took the lead on a fast break. On the next time down, the Spartans turned it over again, this time with Holloman throwing an entry pass over Zapala’s reach. On our next possession, Akins missed a layup and Kohler lost the rebound out of bounds. Mutu hit a triple from the top of the key to stretch the Broncos’ lead. MSU failed to score again, and Westen had a few chances on offense but could not convert any of them. Cooper drew a foul to head to the line, bringing the game to the under-16 timeout, but MSU still had not scored since that opening shot and trailed 8-3.
Cooper sank his free throws to end the drought. But WMU nailed another triple in response. After a missed drive from Carr and a defensive stop, MSU finally got some easy point as Richardson got out on a fast break for a dunk to make it 7-11. The Spartans got another stop, after doing nothing for 29 seconds, Holloman splashed a deep 3, his second of the game, to get the Spartans within a point. After a few empty possessions, Richardson put MSU ahead on a strong drive, getting the and-1 with his left hand. The FT made it a 13-11 MSU lead. Richardson got a steal on D, and Akins finished the next play to put State up 4. The Broncos threw another one away, but Fidler missed a jumper on the other end. After Fidler blocked a shot against the Broncos, the game went to a break with the Spartans leading 15-11.
When the game resumed, Fears earned a trip to the line. After missing the first, WMU coach, and former MSU assistant, Dwayne Stephens got a technical, which Fidler turned into two free points. And then Fears hit his second attempt to put MSU up 7. Carr got a blocked shot but Western responded with a block of theri own, and then made a jumper to end the MSU run after 13 consecutive points. MSU could not respond, and then the Broncos scored again to cut it to 3. After a pair of traded baskets, MSU turned it over for the fifth time when Akins could not find Zapala on the entry. Western missed a triple, and Akins brought it up and nailed a three of his own early in the shot clock to double the lead to 23-17. Western split a pair of FTs, Booker missed a three, WMU got called for a travel when the ball handler fell down in the paint, Booker lost the ball to a triple-team on the baseline, Western missed a triple followed by a floater followed by a tip, and then Richardson hit a runner across the lane. MSU stole the ball on defense, Richardson led the break back and fed Booker for the one-handed slam to put MSU up 9, 27-18. Coach Stephens called a timeout to give us the under-8 commercial.
The Broncos got a quick bucket out of the timeout, and then Cooper coughed it up down low. The two teams traded misses from deep, and then MSU gave up the late layup. Akins responded with a long two, the Broncos missed a three badly, and then Cooper put back an offensive rebound for the layup. After another stop, Holloman rewarded Cooper for the alley-coop to give MSU its biggest lead. Two scoreless possessions later, the under-4 whistle was blown with the Green & White leading 33-22.
In the final segment of the opening half, the teams traded traveling violations, and then Western got dinged for a shot clock violation, wiping out a basket. The infractions continued with Fears getting called for holding the ball for five seconds to give it back. MSU’s next two offensive possessions were the kind that gave Izzo a migraine, but WMU only was able to chisel off two points from the lead. Akins earned a 1&1 trip to the line with just under a minute left, and he got both to drop. Izzo used his timeout at this point. A Jeremy Fears defensive foul led to some tempers flaring, and the referees assessed technicals on each side, so the calls offset. When play resumed, the Broncos lost the ball in the paint. MSU held for the final shot, a top-of-the-key 3 from Akins that rimmed out… but Zapala was there for the putback at the buzzer for a halftime score of 37-24.
Akins was the leading scorer at the half with 11, followed by Richardson’s 7 and Cooper and Holloman with six apiece. MSU had the slightest edge in rebounds, 17-16, and turnovers were even at 11 each.
The Spartan defenders slapped the court to open the 2nd half, but promptly allowed a five-point possession on an and-1, an offensive rebound off the missed FT, and a 3-pointer. Just like that, the lead was back to single digits. Then, Akins missed his attempt from deep, which led to a 2-on-1 the other way. The Broncos got the easy layup to make it a six-point game a minute in. Holloman missed a three to end a possession that had no ball movement. Fortunately, Fears was able to draw an offensive foul. Another Akins missed three followed by another missed Holoman triple kept MSU blank in the half, and then Western hit a three to split the lead down to 37-34. MSU finally got on the board with Zapala scoring down low. After forcing a stop, Akins finally connected on a three to pad the lead back to 8, 42-34. WMU came back and hit an end-of-clock triple. Zapala scored again down low, but the Broncos came right back and scored a layup while getting foul, but did not convert the FT. Both teams missed their next attempt, and Holloman hit from beyond the arc. A minute later, the game went to break with a foul call against MSU and the score 47-39.
The Broncos missed both FTs when the game resumed. MSU did not convert on their possession, and then WMU went back to the line where they made them this time. A minute later, Cooper got hs second alley-coop on a play that the entire arena thought would go to Carr, who also had elevated. Booker sent Western to the line preventing a fast break dunk, and they made the two freebies. The scoring went on a little hiatus for a few possessions, before a pair of traded baskets and travel on Western took us to the next break with the Spartans up 51-45.
Coen Carr got the ball at the top of the key and tried to take it all the way to the rim, but drew a trip to the line instead where he made both tries. WMU scored on their next trip, but Cooper gets another alley-coop on MSU’s next possession and even got fouled on the attempt. In all honesty, the basket was a lucky ricochet that somehow fell in, but sometimes you need to be good to be lucky. Cooper finished the three-point play to make the score 56-47. Zapala got an offensive rebound a few possessions later and stuck it back to get MSU back up by double digits, and the Broncos called timeout trailing 58-47. Coming out of the huddle, the Broncos could not get anything going and settled for a shot clock violation. MSU did nothing on the other end, and then a Western dribbler got by Booker and got to the hole to make it a single-digit game again. Akins missed a triple (2-7 now) and then Fears put Western on the line, though they missed both. The other way, Kohler drew a shooting foul of his own at the under-8 mark. Michigan State was leading 58-49.
Out of the commercial, Kohler missed the first but hit the second. WMU came back and hit a triple from the wing to cut it to 7. After a quick steal, the Broncos got bailed out of another late-clock situation, but were bailed out by a Holloman foul, which but Western in the bonus. Fortunately, they missed the front end, and MSU ran the ball up court where Fidler drew a shooting foul going to the hole. Frankie, predictably, hit both. Carr elevated for a blocked shot at the rim, and Jase finished on the other end on a drive from the corner to get the Spartans up 11. On MSU’s next trip, Zapala could not convert inside, and then Carr got a foul on his own attempt. He made both attempts. Western stopped the bleeding with a quick bucket, and then MSU turned it over, which led to a foul on the break and a trip to the line. Two makes brought the score to 65-56. Fears responded with his own slash from the corner and converted in the lane. Going back on defense, MSU got whistled for a foul at the under-4, leading 67-56.
Western Michigan missed a pair for the third time in this game. Akins earned his own trip to the line on the other end, and he showed the Broncos how to sink shots from the charity stripe to extend the lead to 69-56. After a defensive stop, Akins got the outlet pass and attacked the rim for a layup. Western missed a triple from the top, and then Carr got fouled under the basket as MSU tried to push again. Coen hit the pair. WMU scored inside to end an 8-0 MSU run. But Carr hit a corner three to give the Spartans an 18-point lead, their biggest of the game to that point. After traded baskets, including a dunk by Cooper, the refs blew the whistle to get the subs in. Normand, Teng, and Sanders came in for the final minute. Sanders promptly hit a jumper from the elbow. The Broncos got one last basket before Carr got to dribble it out.
MSU wins 80-62 and Izzo and Stephens met at midcourt for the handshake.
Akins finished with a game leading 18, and Cooper was next with 13. MSU rebounded a little better in the 2nd half, finishing with a 37-30 advantage, and both teams added six more turnovers after intermission to finish with 17 apiece.
Let’s get to the lists.
3 Things I Liked:
1. 10 fast break points and 16 points in the paint in the first half. 23 and 36 for the game. Nearly half of our scoring came inside and more than a quarter came on the break. That has to make Tom happy.
2. Assists on 20 of 27 FGs. Could have been more if it were not for Western fouling several Spartan shooters in the low block.
3. Free throws becoming nearly automatic for this team. Against WMU, the Spartans hit 20 of 22 (90.9%). It’s worth mentioning that we are top ten nationally in this stat. That’s something to be proud of.
3 Things I Did Not Like:
1. Kohler going 0-4 in the first half (0-2 on 3s). He took no FGAs in the second, so his 1-2 trip to the line gave him his only point of the day. His only other stat was his four rebounds, so a quiet day for Jaxon.
2. In general, not the cleanest of games for Izzo’s squad. The Broncos were getting their share of steals, and we helped them with a few throwaways on top of that. A few offensive possessions where we could not get any movement and had to settle for a late isolation shot. Some missed bunnies. And we gave up 11 offensive rebounds. Just the little things, but the talent discrepancy between these teams should have led to an even bigger win.
3. Not enough of you giving Brian some props for his amazing work on the Izzo coaching tree article. Only 12 comments? I mean, he spent a lot of time researching that. Give the man his credit. speaking of lacking comments, only 68 at the end of the first half and 133 at the time of publication. And do I need to remind you that we need to rec the “Go Green” comments that begin each game thread to turn them green? I had to do that on my own when I saw that at halftime. Come on, TOC, you got some things to work on in the new year. It’s okay. I’ll assume it was still a holiday hangover/ extended food coma that caused the inactivity.
Victory for MSU!