EAST LANSING – Michigan State women’s basketball took care of Youngstown State on Wednesday night, winning 96-52. This win keeps the Spartans’ undefeated season going, and they now stand at 3-0 overall.
MSU head coach, Robyn Fralick, was proud of the way her entire team played and thought everyone who touched the floor made a contribution to the win.
“I thought everybody went in the game tonight and made a positive impact, brought the right energy, brought the right attitude,” Fralick said. “So, great team win and encouraged by some of the things we’ve been challenging them on.”
Here are three takeaways from MSU’s all-around dominant performance.
Shumate provides a spark
Michigan State redshirt-freshman Kennedy Blair committed two fouls in less than the first two minutes, forcing Fralick to sub Blair out. Senior guard Emma Shumate took Blair’s place and caught fire. Shumate provided the offensive spark for MSU’s offense needed and ended her night as the second leading scorer with 14 total points.
Shumate is the Spartan’s best shooter from outside so far this season, and she described the work ethic that goes into her consistency with shooting from beyond the arc.
“Fralick likes us to get about a thousand makes each week, so that’s the goal and sticking to that plan and just trusting every game, it’s going to pay off.”
Coach Fralick gave Shumate high praise and described how important it is to have such a reliable shooter from three-point range.
“I love to call her Shootmate,” Fralick said. “That’s my nickname for her and shooters shoot. She spends a lot of time on it… It’s a huge advantage for our team, it creates space, it’s definitely a weapon.”
MSU uses depth to its advantage
Not only did the starters for Michigan State play to their standard, but the players coming off the bench made an extremely positive impact in this game.
MSU totaled up 48 bench points on the night, which adds up to be exactly half of the points the Spartans ended the game with at 96.
Starting forward, senior Grace VanSlooten was proud of how her teammates were ready to come in the game and explained how useful it is to have reliable players come off the bench and provide a lift for the team.
“We play so fast and so hard that you’ve got to be able to have subs come off the bench and keep that same level of play,” VanSlooten said. “So, I think it’s very important that we have that depth.”
Fralick also credited the players who came off the bench and explained the importance of having a good amount of depth on her team.
“I thought our depth tonight was great,” Fralick said. “I thought everybody who went in, was called upon, was ready, contributed, positively impacted, and with the way we want to pressure and play, you’ve got to count on a lot of people to do it right and tonight I thought that it was great.”
Creating extra chances
Once again, Michigan State was aggressive on the glass. The Spartans got a total of 36 boards, and 17 of those were on the offensive end.
Fralick has been consistently challenging her team on rebounding and creating more opportunities. She was proud of the performance her team showed tonight.
“I thought we had a really good rebounding game,” Fralick said. “So, I’m really encouraged by that.”
MSU was able to capitalize on the extra opportunities that were provided with the impressive offensive rebounding game. 23 second-chance points were awarded to the Spartans and Fralick was impressed by the number of extra shots her squad received as a result of rebounding well.
“Tonight, we did a better job of rebounding misses,” Fralick said. “You rebound better when you take predictable shots. I thought we took very predictable shots and did a much better job giving extra shots.”
Up next for Michigan State is an in-state opponent, as the Western Michigan Broncos come into East Lansing on Sunday, Nov. 16, with tipoff set for 2 p.m.
