EAST LANSING— The first half wasn’t the same No. 9 Michigan State men’s basketball team as the second half No. 9 Michigan State men’s basketball team.
MSU walked into the locker room at halftime down 50-36.
MSU came off the floor at the end of the game with an 86-74 victory on Saturday afternoon.
The Spartans claimed victory over the Ducks with fast pacing and physicality. Oregon was quickly shown the difficulty of playing at the Breslin Center once this MSU team got the crowd fired up in the second half.
“Talk about an ultimate team effort,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “The team was the players on the floor, the players on the bench, the players behind the bench, the fans in the stands. That was a team.”
This Spartan victory marks Izzo’s 353rd Big Ten win to tie him with the winningest Big Ten coach and former Indiana head coach Bob Knight.
“I’m proud of it because I get to be talked about with a guy that I really thought highly of as a coach,” Izzo said of tying the record.
Oregon got the best of MSU in the first minutes of the game with back-to-back three pointers with no response from the Spartans. Junior forward Jaxon Kohler sunk a jumper to get MSU on the board in response, then a couple 2-2 trips at the free throw line from junior center Carson Cooper and freshman guard Jase Richardson made it 8-6.
The Spartans trailed for the first few minutes of play, but Kohler hit a three from the top of the key to give them their first lead and Richardson extended the lead with back-to-back threes to make it 17-13.
Saturday afternoon marked Richardson’s first career start at MSU with redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. out for illness. Richardson led the Spartans with a career-high of 29 points.
Things got all tied up at 19-19 with under 10 minutes left in the first half. The Spartans took a two-point lead with a jumper from sophomore forward Coen Carr, but the Ducks re-claimed the lead with a three pointer from sophomore forward Kwame Evans Jr.
Scoring droughts up to three minutes stumped MSU’s momentum and Oregon kept building its lead. Senior guard Keeshawn Barthelemy sunk a last-second three before the halftime buzzer to put the Ducks 14 points ahead, 50-36.
“Not any magical things were said at halftime,” Izzo said. “I thought our players decided that they weren’t guarding well enough. Getting beat on dribble drives and everything else.”
The Spartans came out of halftime reenergized and the Breslin crowd was fired up with them. MSU went on a 12-0 run to open the second half and chip away at Oregon’s lead to make it 50-48 with under 17 minutes left on the game clock.
“We gave them four open threes to start the second half,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “The game changed on that.”
This matchup was nothing less than an intense and physical game. Izzo received a technical foul after a foul was called on senior guard Frankie Fidler with just over 13 minutes left in the second half. Sophomore guard Jackson Shelstad and senior guard TJ Bamba both went 2-2 from the free-throw line.
Senior guard Jaden Akins hit an alley-oop and junior guard Tre Holloman sunk a three which got the Breslin crowd on its feet and loud.
The Spartans reclaimed the lead with a second-chance bucket from Kohler and he drew the foul for a three-point play and the Ducks were left behind for the remaining 10 minutes of play.
“It was one of the great comebacks,” Izzo said. “It was one of the great wins. The crowd was electric. If it’s not one of the best wins at home, it’s a top fiver.”
MSU will remain at the Breslin to host Indiana on Tuesday with the tip-off set for 9 p.m. Matt Merrifield and Allie Cohen will be on the call for Impact.
