EAST LANSING– After two close, yet expected losses to then No. 1 UCLA and No. 4 USC in Los Angeles, No. 22 Michigan State women’s basketball found itself in a must win game back in East Lansing.
MSU could have easily looked exhausted or not ready to go against a tough Indiana squad, but instead the Spartans took control in a gritty 73-65 win.
“In my opinion I think Indiana’s been playing their best basketball, especially recently coming off a really good win against Ohio State, so we knew the challenge at hand,” MSU head coach Robyn Fralick said. “I thought our kids did a great job of executing our game plan, really dialing in on the defensive end.”
Here are the takeaways from MSU’s bounce back victory and what it means for their postseason picture.
Speed kills
Through the opening six minutes and change of the game, MSU’s offense struggled to get going in the halfcourt with only a single made field goal in that time. Then the Spartan defense started to settle and create disruption on the other end, leading to a faster game pace.
The second made shot for MSU came from junior guard Theryn Hallock on a steal and breakaway lay in. From there the Spartans were off and running. The scores off defensive pressures sped the game up and broke open the Hoosiers interior protection.
“For us it’s ball movement, once we’ve rotated two or three times, those driving lanes open because the defense falls apart,” Hallock said. “We knew they were going to pack the paint so for us to even get a foot in the paint causes all those defenders to come out then you have the dish pass to the post so you have a kick out three.”
MSU forced 18 IU turnovers and turned those into 24 points. As a result of MSU’s controlled pace, the softened IU defense allowed 40 points in the paint with junior forward Grace VanSlooten, senior guard Jocelyn Tate, and Hallock leading the charge inside.
“Our men’s team has the phrase strength in numbers, and I believe in that, very rarely does everybody play great on the same night so it takes a team,” Fralick said. “Jocelyn Tate, I felt like every time we were in a lull she found her way to the free throw line and did a good job finishing.”
Against USC, Tate crossed the 1,000-point mark in her career and made one of her biggest game impacts tonight as a scorer and on defense with four steals.
“Just a huge credit to her [Tate] she has really developed, something that she has been good at her whole career is she’s always impacted winning,” Fralick said. “With defense, with winning possessions, creating for other people, so really proud of her.”
VanSlooten led the team in scoring with 17 points as Hallock and Tate matched each other with 16 points. Hallock also pulled down six rebounds and made five assists, as all three ran to the basket with tough finishes.
“She [VanSlooten] has an incredible work ethic and so she’s somebody who just does the work and she does it over, and over, and over again,” Fralick said. “She’s added a really physical presence for us inside, finishing, and rebounding, getting us extra possession.”
Hoosiers ran off the line
One of the keys to the Hoosiers win over No. 8 Ohio State was their success from beyond the arc. In that game, they shot 10-17 from three and are the second best three-point shooting team in conference at 36.7% on the year.
“Indiana’s arguably maybe the best shooting team in league, they pretty much consistently have at least four kids on the court who shoot threes at a high level.” Fralick said. “Credit to our defense for holding strong.”
They had no such success against the Spartans, going well below their season average from three at 27% off 6-22 shooting. While the Hoosiers had their share of open looks that just didn’t fall, credit should be given to the Spartan perimeter defense.
The backcourt remained active around the line, contested well when shots went up, and often forced IU to pull the ball down and take a look inside. There Hoosiers were often met with a more difficult shot around the rim or a block inside.
IU did find some solid success inside though with 30 points in the paint. They were led by graduate guard Chloe Moore-McNeil who earned a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, but IU was blocked five times.
While the Spartans shot even worse from distance at 20%, all MSU needed was to make this category a non-factor. While IU finally caught fire in the fourth quarter with four threes, it was too little too late as Hallock came up with a huge triple of her own to put it out of reach.
“I know I had a lot of wide-open shots and they’re gonna fall, I gotta keep trusting that I’ve put the work in and Julia’s [Ayrault] been putting the work in,” Hallock said. “Keeping up with our confidence and trying to adjust as much as we can.”
Spartans stay on track
It would have been easy to let the pair of losses on the west coast leak into this matchup, but this MSU team has shown resilience all season. Going into the day, both teams held a 9-6 in conference record and needed the win to stay alive for a top four finish in the Big Ten.
“It’s a trip and on the women’s side it’s a trip against two top five teams, so I think that part is just another level of challenge,” Fralick said. “I did think it took us a little time this week to just recalibrate, but our defensive effort tonight stood.”
MSU needed to retain position in Big Ten and NCAA tournament seeding, with an excellent home crowd behind them they did enough to deliver. After taking down the Hoosiers, the Spartans climb to 20-7 overall and get their tenth B1G win.
“These games I feel like, those are supposed to be ours, so we need to act like it,” Tate said. “They want to win too, so we just need to come in and be strong and be tough and play Michigan State basketball.”
MSU has now secured their second straight 20-win season starting with the arrival of Fralick as head coach. With the win, the Spartans keep their status as a five seed for March Madness and the rise to a four seed remains open. MSU will get a chance to earn a signature win at Ohio State and make that case, as the Spartans welcome the challenge.
“That’ll be really exciting for us, that’s what we wanted all season, we’ve had many opportunities but haven’t been able to finish it through,” Tate said. “We still fought hard, we still played hard, but we just want one, we just need one to get us going.”
The top 25 showdown between the Spartans and Buckeyes goes down Feb. 26 at 7 p.m., with Big Ten Plus hosting the broadcast.
