ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Senior guard Jaden Akins went for the breakaway dunk with 29 seconds left on the game clock.
Junior center Carson Cooper grabbed the rebound off of junior forward/center Danny Wolf’s missed three-pointer attempt on the other end of the court. Cooper passed it off to redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr.
Fears brought it across the prominent maize with a deep blue outline ‘M’ in the middle of the Crisler Arena court and let the clock run out while the loss sunk in for Michigan.
‘Go green, go white’ chants rang through Crisler as lines of Maize decorated Michigan fans went for the exit, marking the Wolverine’s first loss at home this season after a historic 12-0 run. MSU claimed a 75-62 victory on Friday night.
“There’s nothing better than beating your rival on their home floor,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “They’re going to get a chance to do that to us coming up.”
MSU controlled the first 10 minutes, but the tide changed, and Michigan controlled the second 10 minutes to close out the first half. Junior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. tied it at 16-16 after going 1-1 from the free throw line.
The Wolverines went on a 15-0 run and put the Spartans in a five-minute scoring drought to take a 23-16 lead with seven minutes left. MSU was forced to play catchup for the remainder of the half. The closest it was able to pull within was three points.
Michigan had MSU beat in shooting from the field and from behind the arc, but the Spartans outperformed them from the free throw line in the first half. The Wolverines shot 53.8% from the field, 36.4% from behind the arc and 54.5% from the line, comparatively, the Spartans shot 38.7% from the field, 30.0% from behind the arc and 87.5% from the line.
In the first half MSU only recorded two assists, both from junior guard Tre Holloman as freshman guard Jase Richardson led the Spartans with 11 points. Michigan had a 38-34 advantage over MSU at halftime.
“I thought the first half we were awful, and we only had one guy, Jase, that played well,” Izzo said. “I said we got a chance because I thought we’d be about being down to play.”
The second half saw the Wolverines leading for just over a minute. The Spartans held control of the game from the 14:48 game clock mark until the end of the matchup.
A three-pointer from Fears gave MSU its first lead since the first half, 40-38. A dunk from Cooper made the lead permanent for the remainder of the half.
The Spartans improved their shooting from the field and from behind the arc in the second half. They shot 53.3% from the field and 50% from behind the arc but slipped from the free throw line to 42.9%.
Richardson finished with 21 points followed by Holloman with 18, Akins with 11 and Fears with 10. Cooper led with eight rebounds and Holloman led with four assists.
MSU (22-5) will be traveling to take on No. 20 Maryland (21-6) on Wednesday with the tip-off set for 6:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
