EAST LANSING– No.15 Michigan State men’s basketball posted a season-low 23 points in the first half, but answered with 43 in the second half to outlast the Ohio State Buckeyes, 66-60 on Sunday afternoon.
MSU head coach Tom Izzo was disappointed about his squad’s performance, especially after the solid week of practices they had.
“I told Robbie Hummel before the game the biggest thing I’m concerned about is unforced turnovers; we had four of them before the game started,” Izzo said.
The first half struggles began on the first play with a miscommunication between MSU starters Jeremy Fears and Coen Carr, and continued with a shot clock violation and a few more turnovers on the following possessions, which put the Spartans in a hole.
The Buckeyes were short-handed, sustaining multiple absences due to illness. That, combined with poor rebounding statistics, set up a favorable matchup for Spartans’ senior center Carson Cooper to cut the deficit.
Cooper scored a career-high 20 points on the afternoon and was active on the glass with 11 rebounds, which was good enough for his third double-double of the season.
The Buckeyes were undermanned, only running an eight-man rotation. This meant Ohio State’s leading scorer, Bruce Thornton had to do even more than he’s usually tasked with. The upgrade in usage wasn’t a was a problem for All-Big Ten guard, but he was a problem for MSU’s defense. Thornton scored 32 points and played all 40 minutes and single-handily made a 7-0 scoring run late to make the game interesting, but couldn’t complete the comeback for the Buckeyes.
“He’s a tough matchup for sure, he’s a 2,000-point scorer, he’s a vet in the Big Ten, and he’s a three-level scorer who’s strong, so you just got to be locked in when guarding him,” MSU freshman Jordan Scott said.
Spartans’ forward Jaxon Kohler was in foul trouble early; he committed three fouls in the first half and only had 16 minutes of action before fouling out in the final minutes.
Kohler still made an impact during his limited time on the floor. The senior was one point shy of a double-double, as he contributed nine points and ten rebounds.
The Spartans didn’t receive much production from the bench, as they combined for three made field goals on 16 attempts. Also, it wasn’t the same shooting performance from a few nights ago against UCLA; it was far from it. MSU only shot 26 percent from behind the arc.
The Spartans await a tough road test at Mackey Arena, one of the toughest places to play in the country, against the No. 7 Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. Catch Jack Stager and Joe Dez on the call from West Lafayette, Ind. on the Impact 89FM website: https://impact89fm.org/listenlive/
