EAST LANSING– As No. 20 Michigan State looked to get four straight wins over Michigan behind a buzzing Breslin Center, the red-hot Wolverines more than rose to the rivalry occasion.
As the Spartan faithful cheered ‘Go Green Go White’ in Ann Arbor, the Michigan contingent who made the trip made themselves heard with ‘Let’s Go Blue.’
“To win a game like we did today on their home court I just think was a signature win for us,” UM head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “A great response to how they beat us at our place.”
Here are the takeaways from the Spartans’ sobering home loss and how the result transpired.
Michigan finishing around the rim
While the Spartans have the inside advantage on paper with junior forward Grace VanSlooten, the Wolverines found a way to penetrate the paint. Michigan’s small-ball lineup found ways to get crafty inside and get past MSU’s guards in one-on-one situations.
VanSlooten had a hard time getting good looks against Michigan’s paint protection, with only five first-half points. At the end of the first 20 minutes, the Wolverines found themselves with a six-point advantage in the paint.
“I think they have a very versatile line-up so they can kind of play five-out,” VanSlooten said. “That kind of brings all of our height out of the paint and that’s how the guards are able to get in there and get good looks.”
This can also be attributed to the Wolverines’ speed off of Spartan missed shots, giving MSU a taste of their own game. Michigan took advantage of some cold Spartan shooting with a 23-5 fast-break lead for the game.
While VanSlooten found a lot more success in the second half, finishing with 15 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double, Michigan still had more success with less size. The Wolverines finished with 32 paint points as MSU went 12-29 on layup attempts. In what is usually the Spartans’ bread and butter, the slashing MSU backcourt never finished effectively.
“We took some bad shots, we also just missed some lay-ups, I thought it was very physical in the paint,” MSU head coach Robyn Fralick said. “We had 18 offensive rebounds but didn’t finish, we had to be able to convert off of that.”
Hampton provides an early spark, but MSU’s backcourt never fires back up
As the Spartans found themselves down 11 midway through the second quarter, MSU needed to find some rhythm to stay in it. Graduate guard Nyla Hampton then picked up where she left off against Northwestern. She contributed five points of an MSU 7-0 run to close the half, cutting Michigan’s lead to four.
Hampton finished the half as the Spartans’ leading scorer with nine, featuring three steals and two rebounds. She eventually got into double figures with 11 points on the day, with only one bucket after half. However, no one in the Spartan backcourt could find the takeover gene in the second half.
“I felt like we would get a stop, turn them over, and then empty possession, empty possession, empty possession,” Fralick said. “That’s frustrating, especially as you’re chipping your way back into a game.”
While Ayrault got all of her 10 points in the second half, she went 2-10 from the field. Elsewhere, junior guard Theryn Hallock and senior guard Jocelyn Tate combined for an 18.18% shooting in a game where the guards never got their touch back.
“I shared with the team it wasn’t one particular player I just thought as a group we didn’t play good enough basketball,” Fralick said. “The way we play we gotta play good group basketball, we’ve gotta be able to do it together, and unfortunately tonight we didn’t do that.”
Wolverine freshmen lead the charge
Michigan broke its three-game losing streak to the Spartans the same way they have won games all season, with a pair of stand-out first years. Freshman guards Syla Swords and Olivia Olsen, after getting put away in their first matchup with MSU, came out with a vengeance.
“In that first game both Syla and Olivia got in foul trouble and really didn’t play in the first half and then in the second half they were never really able to get themselves established,” Arico said. “I think obviously it was a wake-up call for us, every opportunity for our team is an opportunity to grow and get better because we are so young.”
Both finished in double figures, combining for 33, as Swords ended the day as the game’s leading scorer with 19. The Wolverines went 6-16 from three, with Swords making three of them and proving herself a weapon everywhere on the floor.
Behind her and Olsen’s play, Michigan gets the tough rivalry win at 71-61 and forces a split on the series. MSU saw some statistical anomalies from individual players and as a unit, but there’s no question the Wolverines earned this road win.
“It’s just kind of a weird feeling, I think that we did not play like us at all,” VanSlooten said. “We’re out of system and they took advantage of that.”
MSU hopes to rebound in a home tilt against Wisconsin on Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. with the broadcast available on Big Ten Plus.
