EAST LANSING- The Michigan State Spartans beat the Eastern Michigan Eagles 95-49 on Veterans Day to advance to 3-0 on the season.
This was a gritty battle for the Spartans with the absence of junior forward, Grace VanSlooten, who was out due to sickness.
Despite VanSlooten’s absence, MSU was able to contribute from all sides and have different players step up to fill her role.
Junior guard Theryn Hallock gave an incredible performance putting up 18 points and four assists.
Hallock utilizes her speed to move the ball quickly on the breakaway and finds open looks while getting to the paint.
“Theryn always just seems to find her way to the rim, she’s got electric speed, really good change of pace, really good especially on the defensive rebound just bursting at the seams you know, it’s fun,” Fralick said.
“I thought tonight there was a play, there was a long rebound that she tipped out and literally outran three people, and that to me is Theryn,” Fralick said.
Freshman center Inés Sotelo had a performance, scoring 13 points with four rebounds, and her growth is something that is very important to the Spartans style of play.
“She just fits so well in how we play, 6’3, long, mobile, has played really high-level basketball,” Fralick said.
“We’re asking her to guard big physical fives, we’re asking her to guard twos, and the physical part I thought tonight that will be a good learning lesson for her, but she’s getting more and more comfortable she has a really good feel, and really good ball skills,” Fralick said.
The Spartan defense was challenged by Eastern’s Sisi Eleko, who had 25 points and 12 rebounds.
MSU struggled to guard Eleko under the rim, and her height and strength created a tough matchup for the Spartan defense.
“She’s so physical, I thought she really hurt us on the glass, we fouled her a lot off of that, so that’s definitely gotta be a lot better,” Fralick said.
“Obviously with Grace being out it changed her matchups a little bit, but we know moving forward with a physical post player like that we gotta do a better job, and a big part of it just starts with keeping her off the glass,” Fralick said.
Graduate guard Julia Ayrault had 13 points and four steals, and graduate guard Jaddan Simmons had eight points and four steals
The Spartans put defensive pressure on the Eagles, forcing them to 29 turnovers.
The key to stealing is to score on the fastbreak and have communication with the team ensuring that there will be somebody home to get to the basket.
“A lot of it has to do with just practice and it’s what we do every day, like what you see on the court is what you get at practice so just knowing that they’ll be there for me if I steal it then they’ll leak out and they’ll get a layup,” said graduate guard, Jaddan Simmons.
“Just having that team chemistry, I feel like we’ve built that over the summer,” Simmons said.
The Spartans look to keep their win streak going, with their next matchup against Eastern Kentucky this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Breslin Center.
