ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan state men’s basketball heads back to East Lansing with their first win in five years on the road in Ann Arbor. The Spartans beat Michigan 73-63.
Tom Izzo’s team held the Wolverines scoreless in the final 7 minutes of the game. Thanks in large part to great defense, but also, two dunks from Malik Hall, a steal from AJ Hoggard and a bucket from Tyson Walker.
“I thought we played well at times. It seems like when we get a lead we don’t have the maturity or the consistency to build on it, and you should have that. I’ll take some responsibly for that and see if we can clean that up because this was a big win on the road. Any win in the Big 10 is a big one against your rival. I don’t know what he (Juwan Howard) thought but I thought they played well. And they shot it better than we did, that’s for sure,” said Izzo.
Bench players played a crucial role for Michigan state tonight. 23 points for guys off the bench including two massive dunks from Coen Carr in the first half. Helped out MSU when Mady Sissoko didn’t put up any points.
“Coen Carr brought a lot of value. Trey brought a lot of value. Coop was pretty good. Believe it or not, Jaxon Kohler did a lot of things. He just couldn’t make a layup. But our bench, our bench points were 23-2 but it was what they brought. And Coen, with some of those lobs and dunks, they’re two points but they energize you up to three or four points,” said Izzo.
Izzo saying several times in his presser conference that Michigan played well, and for many of us this game was way closer than we thought since the last time these two teams met the Wolverines fell 81-62. Michigan will travel to northwestern and michigan state will be home at the Breslin to host Iowa both on Thursday.
