EAST LANSING— No. 20 Michigan State outshot, outscored and outpaced Florida Atlantic on Saturday afternoon in an 86-69 victory.
“I think that team has a chance to win a lot of games,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said of FAU post-game. “[It] was probably a good test for us.”
The first 10 minutes of play were competitive with lead margins not going past five. However, in the last seven minutes of the first half MSU pulled away from FAU and the Owls didn’t see a lead again.
The lead changed seven times in the first half but ended up favoring the Spartans at halftime by 13 points. Back-to-back dunks from sophomore forward Coen Carr and senior center Szymon Zapala put some fire in the MSU offense to go on a scoring tear.
“There’s things that are worth two points and then there’s things that are worth way more than two points,” Izzo said when talking about Carr’s dunks in the first half. “Those dunks at the time were worth way more than two points.”
The Owls scoring began to slow in the final seven minutes of the first half. FAU only put up 13 points in the last seven minutes compared the MSU’s 23 points.
At the half, redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and senior forward Frankie Fidler led the Spartans in points with eight each. Senior guard Jaden Akins and Carr followed with six points apiece. MSU shot 47% in the paint, 22% from behind the arc and 86% from the free throw line the first half to sit at 42-29.
After halftime, the Spartans had a bit of a shooting slump and fell into a scoring drought. Fidler broke their scoring drought and the Owl’s 6-0 run with a jumper.
Carr was a spark plug for MSU throughout this game. He got his team going again with his third dunk of the game to break another scoring drought.
“Coen, no doubt, was the star of the game,” Izzo said.
After blocking a shot on the other end of the court, Carr sunk a shot that Spartan fans haven’t seen in his MSU career. With less than five minutes of play left, he hit a three from the right wing.
That triple pushed him to 15 points on the night and he finished with a career-high of 17 points.
“I [am] just so happy for him,” Izzo said of Carr. “His shot is improving every day. He’s gotten better with the basketball. He’s gotten better defensively. Believe it or not, his strongest attribute, of course, is his jumping ability.”
The final points from the Spartans in this matchup were from redshirt freshman guard Gehrig Normand. He drained his first three in the Breslin Center from the left wing with about 20 seconds of play left.
MSU finished with four players in double figures: Carr (17), Akins (13), Fears (13, tied-career-high) and Fidler (10).
“So where are we?” Izzo asked reiterating a question. “Good enough to beat a lot of teams. Not great enough to not lose to a lot of teams.”
MSU will have a nine-day break for the holiday season but will be back in action for its final game of 2024 on Dec. 30 to host Western Michigan with tip-off set for 3 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network.
