Spartans Feast On Grizzlies

While just about everybody had packed up and left campus for the Thanksgiving holiday, the No. 16 Michigan State women’s basketball team stuck around for their game against Oakland University.  The Spartans handled the Grizzlies with ease, winning 79-64.

Aerial Powers and Tori Jankoska led the way for the Spartans. Powers, in another dominant performance, shot 9-19 from the field, finishing with 24 points along with 16 rebounds. Jankoska added 19 points, five rebounds and five assists for MSU.

Oakland kept the game close for the first few minutes of the game.  Grizzlies forward Olivia Nash netted 17 points and Elena Popkey added 14.  But OU was no match for Powers and the Spartans.

Other contributors for Michigan State were Anna Morrissey with 11 points and Jasmine Hines with 10 points and 6 rebounds.

After the game, head coach Suzy Merchant said she made an effort to get more players involved.

“We worked really hard yesterday having other people be scorers,” Merchant said. “We literally sat Aerial and Tori on the sideline and kind of put some pressure on kids and did some segments where only certain people could score.”

Powers, whose fiery emotions seemed to flare up more when her teammates got involved than we she was making plays herself, fully on board with Merchant’s plan to get more players involved.

“We’re gonna need the whole team, it can’t just be me and Tori.”, Powers said.

Michigan State improves to 3-1 on the season.  Their next game this Sunday at home vs. Miami, Ohio.


Bradley Allen is a multimedia journalist for Impact Sports

Photo: Bradley Allen/Impact Sports