With a Big Ten Player of the Week award under their belt and a great win on Sunday night against the Dayton Flyers, the Spartans took on the University of Detroit Titans.  The Spartans won 80-41 with a lot of help from the bench.The Titans kept it a close game at the start, but the Spartans closed the gap with the biggest lead at 41.  The team had more control over their fouls this game, made a strong showing defensively and showed displayed their team unity.

Branndais Agee played more minutes in Wednesday night’s game than any other this season. Though she struggled with foul trouble in the game against Dayton, Agee was the leading scorer for the Spartans with 17 points against the Titans. Klarissa Bell followed with 16 points and Tori Jankoska with 12.

“I worked a lot on my defense. I told myself I’m not going to get four fouls in four minutes again,” Agee said regarding previous games. “I’m happy I was able to be out there more.”

Agee also had 11 rebounds to help the team.

Along with Agee, Coach Merchant played the bench more in Wednesday night’s game. The bench alone scored 40 points, playing most of the second half. This was a major help and showed the talent of other players.

“Getting more time always helps with confidence. I feel more comfortable being out there,” sophomore guard Cara Miller said.

 Merchant was very pleased with all of her players Wednesday night. There was less foul trouble and she gave more minutes to her players. The Spartans have a very tight schedule with three games this week and an away game early next week.

“We planned on using our bench a lot. We’re in a really compressed schedule at this point,” Merchant said. “I thought we had some good performance off the bench, so I really just tried to spread it around a little bit.”

The Spartans really showed all their team has to offer and what to expect for the rest of the season.  MSU’s next game will tip-off Saturday at 7:30 p.m, here in East Lansing against Rice.

Jennifer Aldridge is a multimedia journalist for Impact Sports.

Photo: Jennifer Aldridge