EAST LANSING— No. 22 Michigan State women’s basketball got the win at home over Wisconsin on Wednesday night. The Spartans are now 19-5 on the season and 9-4 in conference play.
Fresh off the loss to Michigan, MSU needed this win to keep their confidence up and remain in good standings before heading to the West Coast to face two top five teams, No. 1 UCLA and No. 4 USC.
Here are three takeaways from the Spartans 91-71 bounce back win over Wisconsin.
Amazing Grace
Junior forward Grace VanSlooten is on an incredible roll for the Spartans, marking the win against Wisconsin as her fourth consecutive game scoring the team high in points.
Against the Badgers, VanSlooten finished with 22 points and five rebounds with two steals.
VanSlooten’s presence in the paint allowed her to compete with Wisconsin junior forward Serah Williams, who finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
“A lot of credit to Grace for being really efficient, she had Williams on her a lot, who is the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year last year so a tough matchup,” head coach Robyn Fralick said.
VanSlooten is the player MSU can rely on under the basket to be aggressive and finish at the rim against strong defenders.
“I wish I could say fun,” VanSlooten said on her matchup with Williams. “She’s physical, and she’s a really great player so she really challenged me tonight.”
VanSlooten shot 10-13 from the field and fought through double and triple teams to earn her buckets.
“I think a lot of it goes to my teammates just for them getting me the ball when I want it, running our offense well, so that kinda allows me to be pretty efficient, and not have to take a super high volume of shots to get to where I want to be,” VanSlooten said.
The Spartans will need another high-scoring performance from VanSlooten as they head to the West Coast next week.
Balanced basketball
MSU finished with 91 points, made possible by multiple Spartan players, four of whom scored in double figures.
“The reality is, with our team, when we’re playing well, we have a full team effort,” Fralick said. “I thought we had good balance tonight.”
Graduate guard and team captain Julia Ayrault has been in somewhat of a scoring slump, putting up only three points against the Badgers following a quiet 10-point performance against Michigan.
Ayrault is usually one of the team’s leading scorers alongside VanSlooten, but the Spartans were able to dominate against the Badgers without her offensive prowess.
“You scored 91 points, and you look down, [you see] balanced basketball,” Fralick said. “Jaddan [Simmons] and Nyla [Hampton] had 14 assists, one turnover, there’s just so many ways to impact the game.”
Freshman center Inés Sotelo had a career-high of 17 points with three assists and three rebounds. VanSlooten and her were a huge asset to the Spartans performance.
“It was fun to watch her, especially in that second half I thought she just picked her spots well of when to attack and finish, made some good kickouts out of it, it was fun to see her do that,” Fralick said of Sotelo
With the duo of VanSlooten and Sotelo putting up 22 and 17 points respectively, the front court of MSU is looking dangerous.
Controlling the pace
In Sunday’s game against Michigan, offensive shooting was less than stellar for the green and white who went 31.8% from the field, the lowest team field goal percentage of the season.
Against Wisconsin, the Spartans shot 59.1% from the field and seemed to have better control of the ball throughout each possession.
“We had much better pace and togetherness, especially on the offensive end tonight,” Fralick said.
Simmons and Hampton combined for 14 assists, getting good looks for players like VanSlooten and Sotelo, allowing them to finish in the paint.
“Overall, very pleased with our response especially from the game Sunday,” Fralick said. “I thought we played better team basketball.”
Junior guard Abbey Kimball and freshman guard Kennedy Blair both made an impact on the game coming off the bench.
Kimball played through four minutes and got an open look for a three-point basket, and Blair finished with a bucket of her own and four rebounds.
“I was proud of Abbey, she went in she came back out went back in, shot it confidently, and Kennedy finished with four rebounds, that’s one thing in practice too, she consistently really rebounds the ball,” Fralick said.
The Spartans are successful when they operate as a consecutive unit, and different players can be the ones to step up.
“One of our favorite lines in our program is star in the role you have and work towards the one you want,” Fralick said.
The Spartans will tip off against No. 1 UCLA in Los Angeles, on Sunday at 9 p.m.
