Instant Recap: Spartans find some life in the second half, defeat Northwestern 76-66

5 days ago 2

After a convincing Monday win against USC, Michigan State returned to the Breslin Center to face the Northwestern Wildcats, a team that has been a bit of a thorn in the Spartans’ side over the last several years. The Spartans and Wildcats have split their last eight meetings and Northwestern has two wins in the Breslin Center over the last five years. Unfortunately for the Spartans, Northwestern continued to live up to their reputation in the first half tonight.

The Izzone Alumni returned for a second game and Jaxon Kohler got them excited with a familiar sight – a three pointer – to start the scoring. Nick Martinelli responded quickly for Northwestern though with a three of his own. It was still tied, at 8, at the first media timeout.

Northwestern continued to be a pest coming out of the first break. Michigan State committed their third turnover and then Jeremy Fears picked up his second foul at the 15:05 mark. Jayden Reid broke the tie and gave the Wildcats their first lead at 10-8. Two almost identical Carson Cooper drives from the free throw line briefly had the Spartans back up at 13-12 but Tyler Kropp gave the advantage back to Northwestern with an offensive board and putback and a wide open triple. It was 17-13 Wildcats at the 11:28 mark, with Kropp contributing seven points.

It continued to go back and forth with Fears on the bench with his two fouls. Cooper ran the floor and got rewarded with a layup to give the Spartans the lead back at 18-17. Northwestern responded with a jumper from Martinelli and a three from Max Green off another MSU turnover. A four point play from Jordan Scott, set up with a nice extra pass from Denham Wojcik, briefly put the Spartans back in the lead but it was 24-23 Northwestern at the 7:55 mark.

After Wojcik was pressured by the Northwestern defense and an MSU possession resulted in a shot clock violation, Tom Izzo opted to bring Fears back at the 6:16 mark. It initially paid off with an “alley-Coop” to put the Spartans up 28-24. Northwestern, however, quickly responded with a 7-0 run.

The Wildcat spurt started with Martinelli, who found himself guarded by Fears. Jeremy had to back off to avoid another foul and Martinelli hit the midrange. A moment later, Martinelli added a runner to tie it at 28. A corner three from Angelo Ciarvino broke the tie while the Spartans really started to struggle on the offensive end. Fears missed two open threes and airballed a baseline jumper while turnovers also continued to add up for MSU.

The result was a 35-28 Northwestern lead at the break – MSU’s largest halftime deficit of the season so far. Cooper had 11 points in an otherwise dismal first half for the Spartans. MSU was just 6-11 from the free throw line, were outscored 15-8 in the paint, and committed eight turnovers, leading to 11 points for the Wildcats. This included a steal and layup for Reid just before the break.

Martinelli had 11 first half points for Northwestern and Kropp added nine.

A single Cooper free throw started the second half scoring and ended a nearly seven minute Spartan scoring drought going back to the first half. Fears added a driving layup for his first bucket and Teng added another layup after a fortunate bounce of the ball to have MSU within four, 37-33, at the 15:32 mark. Fears, however, couldn’t convert another driving layup to draw the Spartans even closer and Michigan State was also up to 11 turnovers while dipping to only 7-15 from the line at this point.

MSU twice got within three points before Izzo lost his temper and got T’d up when Northwestern wasn’t called for fouls on Fears and Ward on the same MSU possession. Martinelli hit the technical free throws and Arrinten Page converted a layup off an inbounds play. Suddenly, Northwestern was up seven at 45-38.

Nick Ward would have a response for the Spartans though. The MSU freshman converted inside and then turned an offensive rebound into an and-one to cut the Wildcat lead to just two.

The Spartans were able to continue a little momentum from there. A Kohler triple off a Fears assist put MSU up 46-45 with 11:20 to go. Fears converted an MSU second chance with a tough, end of the shot clock runner in the lane. Cooper added another second chance bucket and then a Carr windmill fast break jam led to a Wildcat timeout with MSU up 52-47 with 9:14 to go.

Northwestern wasn’t fazed though. Martinelli hit one in the paint to quiet the crowd down a bit and MSU went back to struggling on offense. Another Spartan turnover, followed by a quick foul on the defensive end, led to a Jordan Clayton free throw. Northwestern was back within two at 52-50. The Spartans responded with another disjointed possession and their third shot clock violation of the night.

The Spartans were able to get a defensive stop, however, and Fears drew a foul while attempting a three pointer. Jeremy hit all three and the Spartans were up 55-50 with 7:30 to go.

Ward created a travel on Northwestern with solid D and then, after two offensive rebounds, Kohler hit another three to extend the lead to 58-50 at the 6:26 mark. The lead grew to 62-52 at the 4:27 mark as Fears got a bank runner to fall, again as the shot clock was expiring.

The Spartans couldn’t put Northwestern away though. After going 4-22 on three pointers to this point, Max Green and Martinelli hit consecutive triples for the Wildcats. Reid added two free throws and MSU’s lead was just 64-62 with two minutes to go.

Fears responded with a much needed drive and Carr added another thunderous jam on a four on three break to put MSU back up six with 1:11 remaining.

The Spartans were able to get enough stops from there and hit enough free throws as the Wildcats played the fouling game. Michigan State was finally able to remove the purple thorn in their side with a 76-66 win. While certainly not their best performance, MSU improves to 14-2 and 4-1 in the Big Ten.

Cooper led MSU with 18 points and nine boards. Kohler added 15 as did Fears, with all of Jeremy’s points coming in the second half. Martinelli, the Big Ten’s leading scorer, was as advertised in leading everyone with 28.

Michigan State completes a three game home stand on Tuesday against Indiana.

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