STATE COLLEGE, Pa.– Michigan State sophomore guard Divine Ugochukwu shined in his first start as a Spartan. With under a minute remaining, Ugochukwu drilled his fifth three-pointer of the game to extend the lead to two possessions and end the Penn State upset attempt.
“Teammates and coaches trusted me, they ran a play and I ended up getting open and they trusted me to knock down that shot,” Ugochukwu said.
The Spartans snuck by the Nittany Lions in their first road game of the season to win, 76-72.
Spartans head coach Tom Izzo continued to cycle through the starting shooting guard carousel, as the addition of Ugochukwu is the third different variation of the starting lineup this season.
Izzo went deep into his bench, sending 11 players on the court in the first nine minutes. This led to a lot of odd lineups that hadn’t shared the floor yet this season.
“We got a lot of guys that had to play better, a couple of starters, a couple of bench guys and I have to coach better,” Izzo said.
As a starter, Ugochukwu was in a role where he didn’t need to be running the offense and could be an off-ball scorer, getting fed from Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr.
“Me playing with Jeremy off the ball, he can set up, play-make for me, I can playmake for him, it just takes off so much work for us,” Ugochukwu said
Coming off a 40-point loss, Penn State wasn’t in a position to think they had a chance to knock off No. 9 Michigan State. However, with five minutes remaining the Nittany Lions held a three-point lead and had the Spartans on the ropes.
Izzo was impressed with Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades for getting his team prepared after suffering a tough loss earlier this week.
“Coaching is about getting the Jimmy’s and Joe’s to play and if you can get them out of the cave they were in, than that’s pretty special,” Izzo said
Spartans senior forward Jaxon Kohler responded with a strong finish in the first half to cut the deficit. As a veteran, he knows the importance of killing the opposing team’s momentum.
“For all the guys who went through the gauntlet last year, we know that the other team is going to make runs inevitably, but it’s up to us to make those runs, a six-to-eight-point run and not a double-digit run,” Kohler said.
The Spartans were very loose with the ball; they committed a season-high 17 turnovers.
The Spartans took the same number of layups and three-point attempts. Shockingly, MSU made 10-of-18 from three-point range and were only 6-of-18 on layups.
“We missed some against Duke, we missed some here, and you shouldn’t win games when you do that,” Izzo said.
The Nittany Lions’ defensive presence was part of it, as they played a physical brand of basketball.
“Their physicality was better than I thought on film, and I’m kind of bothered by that because usually we’re the tougher team.
Spartans senior center Carson Cooper was hit with a low blow from Nittany Lions forward Josh Reed that resulted in a Flagrant 1 foul.
Fears Jr. was also charged with a Flagrant foul, even though it seemed as if he was going for the ball on the play. It resulted in his second foul, which meant he was sidelined by Izzo for the remainder of the first half.
The Spartans advanced to 2-0 in Big Ten play and finished the calendar year 19-3 in conference play.
The Spartans return to East Lansing for a non-conference matchup on Tuesday, Dec. 16, against Toledo, with tip-off scheduled at 6:30 p.m.
