INDIANAPOLIS— No. 7 Michigan State men’s basketball will be advancing to the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals after defeating No. 23 Oregon on Friday afternoon 74-64.
“For us to start off like that is great,” sophomore forward Coen Carr said. “We knew that we had this double bye and that it could be a big advantage, or it could be a big disadvantage for us.”
Four Spartans finished in double-digits. Freshman guard Jase Richardson led with 17 points, senior guard Jaden Akins followed with 12 points, redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. put up 11 points and Carr finished with 10 points.
The Green and White is now on an eight-game winning streak, clinching 22 of its last 25 games. MSU also ended Oregon’s eight-game win streak as well as its four-straight conference tournament game win streak. The Ducks had held its opponents to under 70 points in conference tournament games prior to taking on the Spartans.
“We just always talk about not getting complacent,” Akins said. “I feel like everybody’s on the same page with that, and we just want to win as many games as possible now.”
MSU opened the first half with an 8-0 start over three minutes until senior center Nate Bittle jammed one in for Oregon. Bittle’s dunk was a spark plug for the Ducks to get some momentum and to go 6-7 from the field to pull within the Spartans and apply pressure.
Oregon tied it up four times and claimed the lead three times, but it was never able to hold a lead of more than two points in the first half. With under eight minutes to play, the lead changed four times until the Spartans claimed it with a jumper from Fears, 29-28.
MSU built up to another eight-point lead, since its 8-0 start to the half, in the last two minutes of the half. The Spartans walked into the locker room at halftime after a 7-0 run to hold a double-digit advantage over the Ducks, 42-32.
The second half was a new opportunity for Oregon to keep itself in it. The Ducks went five for seven attempts to pull them within one of the Spartans, 44-43.
“I felt like after we settled down, we really did a hell of a job,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “The last thing that hurt us is something hasn’t hurt us all year, that was, we missed a bunch of free throws, and that’s uncharacteristic of us.”
MSU quickly began to build up a 15-0 run to lose Oregon, pushing the Ducks into an almost five-minute scoring drought. Sophomore forward Kwame Evans Jr. ended Oregon’s scoring drought after going 2-2 from the free throw line.
Shooting troubles plagued the Ducks throughout the second half. Oregon shot 40% from the field in the second half compared to 56.5% in the first half. However, they put up 32 points in both halves.
“If you ever see a tournament with eight teams that are playing today, and I think any one of the eight can go somewhere in the NCAA Tournament, enjoy the day because this is as good a day of basketball as I’ve seen, and I’ve been in this thing for every one of the Big Ten Tournaments,” Izzo said.
MSU will take on No. 18 Wisconsin on Saturday at 1 p.m. Tune into the live radio broadcast featuring Matt Merrifield and Allie Cohen locally on 88.9 FM or at impact89fm.org/listen-live/.
