EVANSTON, Ill. – Even with a 23-point lead in the first half, in front of a large contingent of Michigan State Basketball With fans filling Welsh-Ryan Arena, Tom Izzo knew Chris Collins’ team would make a run.
What he needed to see in Sunday afternoon’s second half at Northwestern was how his Spartans ranked 14th would answer this answer.
The result left Izzo feeling generally good about his team’s toughness and hot start, but also a little miffed about how it played out and potentially could have played out in the 78- 68.
“It doesn’t make me feel good. You want to finish strong,” Izzo said after MSU’s ninth straight victory. “I mean, finishing games is a big key. And I didn’t like the way we ended. But I was really impressed with the first 20 minutes, I really was. And I’m not easily impressed.
The winning streak is the longest for the Spartans (14-2, 5-0 Big Ten) as they have also won nine in a row in 2021-22. The five-win conference start is MSU’s best since opening the 2018-19 Big Ten slate with nine straight wins en route to Izzo’s final Final Four appearance.
But it was also a second straight game in which Izzo saw his team appear to let off the gas after blowing a big lead.
In In Thursday’s 88-54 win over Washington, the Spartans allowed 13 points in the first half and 41 in the second half. This worried Izzo somewhat, although he was pleased with what was at one point a 41-point lead.
MSU carried that swaggering, all-around game on both ends of the court into the first half against the Wildcats (10-6, 1-4), who have lost three times but are also a veteran group under Collins.
All 10 Spartans who participated in the first half scored at least two points, nine grabbed at least one rebound and six had at least one assist. The ball was in constant motion as they ran in transition and found themselves in the half court, with 14 assists on 18 field goals. Defensively, MSU held Brooks Barnhizer to over 19 points per game without a bucket and limited Northwestern to 4-of-15 shooting from 3-point range.
The Spartans took a 47-28 lead into the locker room, with the Green and White fans apparently making up half of the 7,039 fans in the stands making it feel like a home game.
“I feel like when we play like that, with our energy and we get the crowd going, we can’t be stopped,” said freshman Jase Richardson, who had 10 of his 13 points in the first half.
During halftime, Izzo said Richardson reminded his teammates to prepare for what’s next.
“We were walking off the field and he said, ‘Hey, this isn’t like the other teams. They’re going to come back in the second half,'” Izzo recalled. “This team is tough.”
The Spartans maintained their lead, although they committed seven of their eight turnovers in the second half during a stretch in which the Wildcats cut it to 13 before MSU went up by 18.
Then Northwestern started attacking. Partly to extend the game by committing fouls to stop the clock but also to disrupt the Spartans’ offensive rhythm. And Collins’ strategy almost worked.
The Wildcats made 17 of 22 free throws in the second half and made 15 trips to the line in the final six minutes to push the game from an 18-point MSU lead to 8 with 19 seconds left. The Spartans only scored two points at the break as the game turned into a mud fest.
“When we go down and it’s foul for foul, it kind of disrupts the flow of the game,” Richardson said. “So we need to be more calm on our part and not make any mistakes.”
Northwestern also grabbed eight offensive rebounds in the final half, including six on the comeback sequence to compensate for the Spartans playing a turnover-free final at the 5:20 mark.
“We got lazy and lost focus in the second half, which we can’t really do,” said senior captain Jaden Akins, who had 14 points and surpassed the 1,000-point mark by making six shots frank in the last minutes.
Izzo added: “I thought it was a bad job on our part, a great job on their part. I thought we didn’t play physical enough. I didn’t. It was a scream of war.”
Another concern: Scares went 2 of 5 from the free throw line in the second half, something to watch for if games get close late in the season and opponents try to foul MSU in an attempt to orchestrate a return. The redshirt freshman point guard had 12 points and eight assists despite going 3-of-7 from the line.
“Free throws count,” Fears said, “and I have to make free throws.”
Still, some of these issues are minor considering the potential and production displayed by Izzo’s team over the first 20 minutes of the first half, qualifying it as perhaps the better half in basketball Spartans of the season.
Did MSU ever threaten to lose on Sunday? Not really after walking away early. Were the Spartans’ sins unforgivable? Not at all, as they extended their winning streak and remained perfect in the Big Ten by showing that Izzo’s revamped roster understands what he wants, even as he struggles to accomplish those tasks poorly. coherent.
However, looking at the bigger picture and with Penn State visiting MSU on Wednesday (7:30 p.m./BTN), Izzo realizes that these issues could prove costly if they persist or continue to worsen later in the season and against better opponents.
“We did what we had to do,” Izzo said. “We didn’t play as well in the second half. I think they have something to do with it. I think we have something to do with it.
“But it’s a big road win for us right now. I think any victory on the road is important.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article was originally published on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball shows its power and flaws in 9th straight victory
