EAST LANSING– As the Breslin Center came to its feet, Michigan State men’s basketball put the nail in the coffin with its sixth straight made free throw to secure an 86-72 win to push to a five-straight win streak over Bowling Green Saturday night.
“You got to give them a lot of credit,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said post-game. “I thought they did a phenomenal job. I thought we did a very poor job.”
These two teams haven’t seen each other since 2012 when MSU won 64-53. Their matchup history extends all the way back to 1959.
A familiar face resided on Bowling Green’s sideline. Associate head coach Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr. for the Falcons was a standout Spartan for MSU head coach Tom Izzo in 2014-18.
“It’s hard enough to coach against your former assistants, but it’s really hard to coach against your former players,” Izzo said about Nairn being on the opponent’s bench.
Bowling Green got a hot start to build a nine-point lead, 15-6, just over three minutes into the match-up. A pair of threes and a perfect performance from the free-throw line helped the Falcons build this lead.
The Spartans found themselves down by 10 twice and 12 once in the first half. The Falcons held control of most of the first half with senior forward Marcus Johnson and junior forward Youssef Khayat both in double digits with 13 and 10 points respectively.
MSU found some steam left in them in the first half to pull within two of Bowling Green with an 8-0 run over just under two minutes and a dunk from sophomore forward Coen Carr, 43-41.
The Spartans were able to tie it 43-43 before halftime with a counted layup from junior guard Tre Holloman because of goaltending from the Falcons.
Holloman led MSU in points with 11 in the first half. He was followed by senior guard Jaden Akins with eight.
“We tried to dig in the post a little bit, but boy, once we got it close, we didn’t want to give up threes either,” Izzo said on adjustments made for the second half.
Coming out of halftime the Spartans kept the Falcons on their toes. Bowling Green began to break away with an 8-0 run, but a block from Holloman and an impressive display from the line from junior forward Jaxon Kohler kept MSU in the second half.
The Spartans reclaimed the lead, 66-64, with back-to-back dunks from Carr with 9:12 left on the play clock. The Falcons weren’t going to let them break away yet and they retook the lead 70-68 with a layup from junior guard Javontae Campbell.
Carr kept the momentum moving for MSU and it built up a 12-0 run over five minutes to build an 80-72 lead over Bowling Green. The Spartans sealed the deal with six straight free throws to put away the Falcons 86-72.
“I thought we found a way to win by being up a little bit better at the end,” Izzo said. “We’re down 10 and we came back. We were down in the second half and we found a way to go on a run and hold them scoreless for over seven minutes. Maybe that was part of them, but I think was part of us.”
Up next, MSU (3-1) will host Samford (3-1) on Tuesday with the tipoff set for 8 p.m. Tune into the live game broadcast featuring Matt Merrifield and Allie Cohen at impact89fm.org/?radio_player=2.
