EAST LANSING— No. 14 Michigan State men’s basketball upset No. 13 Purdue on Tuesday night 75-66 to mark the Spartans first win over the Boilermakers since the 2021-22 season.
“I told my team, when you have a schedule like this some people sit there and hope somebody beats somebody,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “We don’t need anybody to beat anybody. We just got to take care of our business.”
MSU dropped nine of the last 10 matchups against Purdue and lost five straight prior to Tuesday night. Spartan basketball alumni Tyson Walker, Malik Hall and Joey Hauser were in attendance.
“I am the most fortunate human being in America that I have that kind of culture,” Izzo said. “It meant a lot. Tyson and Joey were at practice. Malik came in late. Came into the locker room, of course, after the game, so yeah it meant a lot and it meant a lot to the players.”
There were six lead changes and four ties in the first half. MSU trailed for the majority of the half, but in the final four minutes sophomore forward Coen Carr helped push the Spartans within striking distance of the Boilermakers after going 2-2 from the free throw line.
It became a tied game, 26-26, with an alley-oop dunk to Carr from freshman guard Jase Richardson off a steal. This dunk sparked a 10-0 MSU run to build up to a four-point lead over Purdue. The Spartans were able to walk into the locker room at halftime up 33-31.
“Coen, he’s getting better and better,” Izzo said. “Did have two turnovers, but he also had a couple of really nice passes that got us going. One of them was big-time play later in the game and he’s just starting to do more and more and more. I’m really excited for that.”
The Boilermakers outperformed the Spartans from the field and from behind the arc in the first half. Purdue shot 52% from the field and 40% from behind the arc compared to MSU which shot 48% from the field and 29% from behind the arc.
The Spartans held control of the entire second half, never letting the Boilermakers get closer than four points to them. MSU built up to at most a 13-point lead three times.
Purdue underperformed in the second half from the field and from behind the arc, compared to their first-half performance. The Boilermakers shot 50% from the field and 35.7% from behind the arc.
On the flip side, the Spartans’ performance improved from the field and from behind the arc. MSU shot 68% from the field and 33.3% from behind the arc.
Despite having control of the second half, the Spartans fell into scoring droughts at times and gave the Boilermakers chances to chip away at their lead. Ultimately, MSU proved itself capable of taking down Purdue.
“We got them tonight, but they’ve owned us in the last couple of years and deservingly so,” Izzo said.
Richardson finished with a team-high of 12 points for the Spartans. Senior forward Frankie Fidler and senior guard Jaden Akins both also put up double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Junior center Carson Cooper, senior center Szymon Zapala and Carr all put up four rebounds apiece to help push MSU to beat Purdue in the rebound battle 23-21. Redshirt freshman Jeremy Fears Jr. and junior guard Tre Holloman each recorded six assists. Tuesday marked Fears’ 20th game with five or more assists.
MSU will be traveling down the road to Ann Arbor to take on in-state rival No. 12 Michigan on Friday with tip-off set for 8 p.m. Tune into the live radio broadcast featuring Matt Merrifield and Allie Cohen locally on 88.9 FM or at impact89fm.org/listen-live/.
