EAST LANSING— No. 21 Michigan State women’s basketball is set to take on No. 24 Michigan this Saturday at the Crisler Center. The Spartans and Wolverines are both on a four-game win streak heading into this rivalry game.
MSU is coming off a dominant 82-61 win over Penn State last Wednesday, where the Spartans forced the Lady Lions to 10 turnovers in the first quarter, and 26 overall turnovers.
Junior guard Theryn Hallock was the leading scorer for MSU, putting up 17 points, followed by graduate guard Julia Ayrault with 16 and senior guard Jocelyn Tate with 15.
Heading into Ann Arbor, MSU is aware of the challenges ahead, and what this rivalry means for the program.
“It has all the elements, it’s what makes college sports so fun, two top 25 teams, rivalry game,” MSU head coach Robyn Fralick said. “We’ll have two days to prepare, we’ll have to be sharp.”
The Wolverines are coming off a 70-65 win over No. 23 Minnesota, proving that they can put up a fight and beat ranked teams in the Big Ten.
MSU will need to bring the same energy they did against Penn State and come out swinging to beat the Wolverines in their building. This rivalry means something different for Hallock, who grew up in a household of MSU fans.
“For me growing up as a Spartan this is a very important game,” Hallock said. “Practice is different, the weight room is different, locker room talk is different, we’re just excited because obviously the rivalry games are so much fun to be in, but we want to get the wins so, we gotta just do a little bit extra this week.”
Last season, this rivalry was dominated by MSU, who beat Michigan twice in both of their matchups. Since the start of this matchup in 1999, the Spartans have had the upper hand, winning 34 out of the last 49 games.
“Hate is a really strong, not nice word at all, but very strong dislike for the school down the road,” Hallock said. “But for us, it’s another game yeah, but it’s a very special meaning, we went 2-0 against them last year and to be able to walk out with a dub is obviously the most important part.”
The MSU-Michigan match-up will tip off Saturday at 12 p.m. at the Crisler Center.
