EAST LANSING— It was senior day in East Lansing for the women’s basketball team on Saturday.
Four seniors were honored, including graduate guard Jaddan Simmons, senior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate, graduate guard Nyla Hampton and graduate guard Julia Ayrault.
No. 23 Michigan State was victorious 73-58 over Minnesota at the Breslin Center to secure its 21st win on the season and 11th in conference play.
“We can savor this with the seniors, I think tonight is very much worth savoring,” MSU head coach Robyn Fralick said. “I’m so proud of them. They all have a different story, they’ve all been here a different amount of time, they are all first-class people”.
The seniors each had their moment as Ayrault, Simmons, Tate and Hampton kissed the Spartan logo at mid court.
“Take a moment and look around and just take it all in, and think about all the fans and family, friends and teammates,” Ayrault said on sharing the floor with the other seniors. “Just a special moment, and you try and capture it mentally.”
MSU had five players in double digits, including Simmons, junior forward Grace VanSlooten, Ayrault, freshman center Inés Sotelo and Hampton.
Minnesota and MSU needed to start quickly in this one. Both teams looked inside to their centers, but seven turnovers to start the first three minutes of the game halted any movement inside the arc.
The Spartans heated up from beyond the three-point line after the turnovers and began 3-5 from outside the arc. Sotelo made two, and junior guard Emma Shumate followed up with a triple of her own.
Minnesota picked up its relentless attack to the paint, ending the quarter on a 9-2 run and taking the lead 14-13.
MSU came out fast to start the second quarter going right to the bucket to score four points within the first 70 seconds of the quarter, forcing the Golden Gophers to take a timeout.
The contest kept going back and forth as MSU went on a run, and Minnesota quickly matched with a scoring streak of their own, keeping the contest a one-possession game.
Both teams ended the half on a scoring drought, shooting a combined 2 of 19 from the field as the green and white headed into halftime with a narrow lead 25-24.
The teams came out for the third quarter and scoring was the name of the game as the teams traded buckets on both ends from attacking the glass to outside the arc.
Ayrault, who had only made one shot all day, sank a huge three ball that would ignite the Breslin Center crowd to help draw some momentum in favor of the Spartans, but Minnesota answered back by driving to the basket and drawing contact.
Minnesota came out hot to start the fourth quarter with buckets from freshman guard Tori McKinney and sophomore guard/forward Grace Grocholski to help give Minnesota a four-point lead. However, the Spartans would answer right back from the leaders, Ayrault and junior guard Theryn Hallock, who both made huge shots to stir the crowd back into this one.
The defensive pressure continued to ramp up from the Spartans as MSU forced three turnovers to wake their 9-0 run and retake the lead.
“We switched up our press, we switched up our ball screen, Minnesota was doing a lot of one-on-one attacking our guards and we challenged our guards,” Fralick said. “The way we play there is a cumulative effect of doing it over and over again. We saw that breakthrough in the fourth quarter. We kept pressuring and started getting stops.”
VanSlooten got in on the action as she gathered a tough rebound with three Gophers around her and finished for the and-one that erupted the Breslin crowd, which forced Minnesota to take a timeout to stop the Spartan momentum.
MSU coasted from there as the momentum was too much to stop for the Gophers. Ayrault knocked down the final shot of the game from three to give the crowd one more thing to cheer for.
“It definitely feels good going into the postseason, just to knock one down to end it here at the Bres,” Ayrault said. “I’d say it’s a pretty good feeling and a good way to leave here.”
The Spartans now look forward to the Big Ten Tournament at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana starting on March 5.
