EAST LANSING— Michigan State men’s basketball went all gas no breaks Saturday afternoon to take down Nebraska in its Big Ten home opener, 89-52.
“We are getting better,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said post-game. “It wasn’t Nebraska’s day. They’re a much better team than they played. We probably had something to do with it, but they had something to do with it.”
The Spartans came out hot with seven points starting with no response from the Cornhuskers. MSU’s hot streak was threatened by a scoring drought and turnovers, granting Nebraska a chance to catch up and make the first half competitive.
Redshirt freshman Jeremy Fears Jr. kept the Spartan offense going in the first half, racking up four assists in less than 10 minutes into play. He would finish the game with eight assists total.
“I love the goal,” Izzo said. “Jeremy had a goal; he wanted 10 assists.”
MSU began to pull away from Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers found some fire in the final minutes of the first half and went on a 9-0 run. Junior forward Jaxon Kohler broke the scoring drought for MSU with a jumper and a layup.
Going into halftime, the Spartans had a double-digit lead over the Cornhuskers. MSU led 41-31.
The Spartans left the Cornhuskers in the dust in the second half. MSU had Nebraska beat in almost every statistical category, except turnovers.
“We’re shooting the ball better, 20 assists again,” Izzo said. “Only bad stat that I have is 17 turnovers.”
In the second half, the Spartans shooting helped propel them to an unreachable lead for the Cornhuskers. MSU shot 54.5% (6-11) from behind the arc, 61.5% (16-26) in the paint and 90.9% (10-11) from the free throw line in the second half.
Nebraska’s shooting declined in the second half on the flip side. The Cornhuskers shot 7.1% (1-14) from behind the arc, 28.6% (8-28) in the paint and 50% (4-8) from the free throw line in the second half.
An anticipated Nebraska player for this game was junior guard Connor Essegian who was coming off two career-high performances of over 20 points in each contest. Essegian only put up one point against MSU.
The Spartans finished with three players in double-digits. Senior guard Jaden Akins finished with 18, freshman guard Jase Richardson finished with 16 and sophomore forward Xavier Booker finished with 11.
“I think Jaden is going to be our go to guy,” Izzo said. “Everybody needs one and he sure has worked to earn that spot.”
Booker had dunked it in to join the double-digit club with 11. All 11 of his points were scored in the second half.
“Book came on the second half,” Izzo said. “I think Book’s got a lot of growth here, a lot of growth. We just got to keep working with him.”
Up next, MSU will play Oakland at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Dec. 17. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Tune into the live radio broadcast featuring Matt Merrifield and Oscar Henderson locally on 88.9 FM or at impact89fm.org/listen-live/.
