NEW YORK— No. 8 Michigan State men’s basketball outlasted Rutgers 81-74 on Saturday afternoon in a New York City matchup.
“I’m happy we won because you have to win games like this, but I’m really disappointed. I felt for the first time we kind of looked a little more entitled,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said post-game.
The two teams went head-to-head at Madison Square Garden for the second time. The first MSG meeting was in 2023 where the Scarlet Knights topped the Spartans 61-55. MSU holds a 13-3 all-time series record over Rutgers.
“I thought we fought through a lot of obstacles, and I thought we were close, but we didn’t get it done today,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said post-game.
MSU had a choppy start to the first half. A pair of turnovers, sloppy playmaking and missed shots gave the Scarlet Knights an opportunity to build a lead and push the Spartans into a scoring drought.
Sophomore forward Coen Carr broke the scoring dry spell for MSU with a three-point play with a layup and a free throw. The Spartans continued to trail for three minutes, but senior forward Frankie Fidler tied it up 11-11 with a layup and Carr gave them their first lead since the start of the half with a dunk, 13-11.
MSU regained control of the game, and the tide turned from the 12-minute mark and forward. Rutgers started to get left behind and its shooting began to slow, but the Scarlet Knights had another wave left in them to pull within one-point of the Spartans with under four minutes left.
Junior guard Jordan Derkack tied it up 28-28 to give Rutgers a chance to tie it or possibly take the lead before halftime with under two minutes left, but Carr squashed those hopes with an alley-oop on the other end of the court.
The Spartans went into the locker room at halftime up 35-32 and were being led by freshman guard Jase Richardson with 11 points.
“Coen is a special kid,” Izzo said. “He’s the one guy that I thought was good the whole game.”
Rutgers was thrown off MSU’s tail in the second half. The Spartans began to separate themselves from the Scarlet Knights and proved to be the better team. They built up to a double-digit lead with under 11 minutes of play left.
Richardson turned it over with just a minute left, but Fears got the ball back off a turnover from the Scarlet Knights and passed it long to Booker for him to dunk it in. Rutgers responded with a three on the other end of the court to make it 73-66.
MSU secured its victory in the final seconds of the game to remain undefeated in Big Ten play, 8-0. Richardson led the Spartans with a career-high of 20 points, Carr followed with 14 points and Akins put up 12 points.
“Jaden had one of his worst games starting out one for 10,” Izzo said. “That hurt us some, but you got to give a lot of credit to Jace Richardson and Coen Carr down there and those two guys did an unbelievable job.”
Up next, MSU returns home to host Minnesota for the second game between the two teams. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. at the Breslin Center on Tuesday. Tune into the live radio broadcast featuring Matt Merrifield and Allie Cohen on Impact.
