EAST LANSING– No. 22 Michigan State found themselves in a funk in their loss to Michigan on Sunday. They couldn’t find the right shots, finish at the rim, and just looked generally out of sorts. The script flipped back in the Spartans favor as they took down Wisconsin to end a two-game home losing streak.
“We knew coming in Wisconsin is a tough matchup, especially their interior play, physical, just tough matchup.” MSU head coach Robyn Fralick said. “I thought our team did a good job, we had much better pace and togetherness especially on the offensive end tonight.”
Junior forward Serah Williams for the Badgers, averaging a double-double on the season with 18.9 points and 10.2 rebounds, got off to a hot start. In the first half, she went right to work with 13 points and six boards. She was joined by sophomore center Carter McCray who was just behind Williams with 10 points and five rebounds.
However, MSU was able to mirror the Badgers inside presence. In a game where the Spartans found their touch around the rim again, junior forward Grace VanSlooten and freshman center Inés Sotelo had their way.
“I think we did a really good job at spreading the floor tonight, I think that gave me a lot of room to work with,” VanSlooten said. “I kind of just took my shots when I felt like I had a good shot, good opportunity and if not, pass it to my teammates and we had a lot of people who were hot tonight.”
The duo combined for 23 points on 11-13 shooting. By the end of the night, the Spartan and Badger forward-center pairs matched each other at 39 points.
As a result, greater MSU depth then became the ultimate difference maker, as junior guard Jocelyn Tate reemerged as a threat. Tate found success using her skills as a driver with nine first half points, 13 for the game, and contributed to the 43-32 MSU lead at the break.
“I just thought she [VanSlooten] did a good job picking her spots, getting balanced, getting good angles, and finishing which was important for us to be able to score at the rim,” Fralick said. “Then Inés, I thought it was fun to watch her, especially in that second half. I thought she just picked her spots well of when to attack and finished and made some good kick outs.”
Sotelo contributed 17 points to a dominant 60-point paint performance for MSU, a career high from the first year coming in from Spain.
“Today we had a lot of confidence actually, because I feel like we were playing so good, sharing the ball, and we all have a lot of opportunities to score,” Sotelo said. “So that gave me confidence to drive and everything.”
Out of the locker room, junior guard Theryn Hallock took the MSU offense up another notch to put this one further out of reach. In the third quarter alone, Hallock hit two threes, the same amount MSU had as a team in the first half, en route to 12 points and another double figures performance. She finished the night on 53.8% shooting for 18 points and four assists.
“If I don’t feel like I have the position to score I’m gonna kick it out and I trust any of my teammates to either shoot it or make a play for themselves,” VanSlooten said. “I think that’s why we’re so dangerous, anybody can go off on any given night.”
This all-around extra muscle, featuring 31 points off the bench, carried MSU on a night where
graduate guard Julia Ayrault made her only basket on a three early in the fourth quarter. While Ayrault didn’t stuff the stat sheet through scoring, she contributed five assists, five rebounds, and five blocks.
“Balanced basketball, scored 91 points and you look down, balance basketball,” Fralick said. “Jaddan [Simmons] and Nyla [Hampton] had 14 assists, one turnover. There’s just so many ways to impact the game and the reality is with our team, when we’re playing well we have a full team effort.”
The Spartans also bounced back in some statistical areas as a unit. UW outrebounded MSU by five but the Spartans more than made up for it defensively and on the break. MSU seemed to get back to their standard by not only winning the turnover battle by six but made it a real difference by converting on the bonus opportunities.
They finished with 27 points off of TO’s and finished on multiple runouts with 19 on the fast break. While Williams surpassed her already stellar season averages, with recording 23 points and 12 rebounds for another double-double, the rest of the Badgers never picked up the slack. Overall, the Spartans outmatched UW in too many categories for it to matter in a 91-71 victory for MSU.
“We came out of the Michigan game and one of the biggest takeaways from that game was we gotta get better shots,” Fralick said. “Tonight we did, I also thought we did a good job of pushing the ball in transition and creating some advantage basketball.”
With the win, MSU climbs to 19-5 on the season, 9-4 in the Big Ten, and will prepare for a few massive opportunities on the west coast. The Spartans will take on undefeated No. 1 UCLA with tip-off set for 9 p.m. and the broadcast available on Big Ten Network.
