DETROIT— No. 20 Michigan State secured its third double-digit win in a row over Oakland on Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena for College Basketball in the D in a 77-58 victory in front of over 12,000 fans.
“I can’t thank our crowd enough,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said post-game. “A number of people from Michigan State that showed up. That’s why I play it, so people that never see us can see us and a lot of times those people don’t get to get into Breslin.”
Within the first few minutes of play, shooting troubles quickly stumped the Golden Grizzlies going 0-10 while the Spartans started to get moving with an early 4-0 lead.
Oakland finally responded with a three from senior guard DQ Cole and MSU responded with back-to-back triples from senior guard Jaden Akins.
The Spartans’ sloppy passing in the first half began to slow them down and keep the Golden Grizzlies within striking range to pass them up. MSU turned it over eight times in the first half, giving up five points to Oakland, compared to the Golden Grizzlies one turnover.
“They didn’t play for 10 [days],” Izzo said. “The 10 days we practiced good, they had finals. No excuse for effort related things and I thought that’s the first half. I don’t think you see that much this year and I saw it and so that’ll be addressed tomorrow.”
Before going into the locker room for halftime, it was tied 30-30. The Spartans were able to get a last-minute lead over the Golden Grizzlies with sophomore forward Xavier Booker going 1-2 from the free throw line to sit at 31-30 at halftime.
“We didn’t come with the same defensive intensity the first half,” Izzo said. “They caused some of it, but Jeremy Fears, of all the people, when you talk about a guy who has one basket and really not as many assists as normal.”
Fears put up four assists against Oakland. Prior to this matchup, Fears was averaging 5.9 assists per game
“I thought he won us the game just because of the job he did on Cole,” Izzo said. “He asked for him at halftime and I said sure and that was the difference in the game.”
After the half, MSU was all gas no breaks to leave Oakland behind. Three Spartans were in double-digits, and they were shooting 45.5% in the paint, 40% from behind the arc and 82.4% from the free throw line in the second half.
The Golden Grizzlies couldn’t keep up while shooting 33.3% in the paint, 35.7% from behind the arc and 50% from the free throw line in the second half. Cole and senior guard Malcolm Christie were bright spots for Oakland, and each were in double-digits with 17 and 15 respectively.
Booker put up a career-high of 18 points and has now put up double-digits for four games in a row. Junior forward Jaxon Kohler put up his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
“I’m happy for Xavier,” Izzo said. “He’s trusted the system, the progress and he’s practiced a lot better, and I don’t know why but since Maui in the tournament even he’s practiced better and he’s becoming pretty efficient.”
MSU’s shooting helped pull them away to an almost consistent double-digit lead in the second half. Building up to at most a 20-point lead in the final two minutes of play.
Junior guard Nick Sanders checked into the game with about one minute left on the clock. Sanders couldn’t get his first three-point attempt to fall, but he sank a second-chance jumper to add the final Spartan points of the game.
“Eventually the talent just took over,” Oakland head coach Greg Kampe said of MSU. “We’ve lost this game a lot of years and a lot of close ones, and there’s a lot of Oakland ex former players sitting watching this on TV wondering if this is the year.”
Up next, MSU will host Florida Atlantic on Saturday at the Breslin Center with tip-off set for 2 p.m. Tune into the live radio broadcast featuring Matt Merrifield and Jack Stager locally on 88.9 FM or at impact89fm.org/listen-live/.
