Tension was abundant in the Crisler Center as Michigan forward Will Tschetter hit a nice jump shot to narrow Michigan State’s lead down to four, 66-62, with 4:12 to go in the game.

The Wolverines - sitting at first place at the time and playing at home - wouldn't score again.

MSU ended up scoring the game’s final nine points to take the rivalry matchup 75-62 on Friday night.

It’s another final score with a victory margin in favor of MSU that doesn’t really feel indicative of how the game largely went. Michigan dominated a very large portion of the first half and held a four-point lead at the break.

This is the third straight contest — all of which were must-wins for MSU to stay in the conference race — where this has transpired.

Just a few days ago, against No. 13 Purdue, the Spartans were holding onto a slim, four-point lead against the Boilermakers with less than two and a half minutes to go.

Purdue’s next basket arrived with just 22 seconds to go in the game to cut a 13-point Michigan State lead to 11.

That’s a 9-0 run as well.

Let’s look at MSU’s road game last Saturday against an Illinois team with a revenge-minded roster and a boisterous crowd to handle.

How’s a 15-0 run to end the game and holding the Fighting Illini scoreless for the final 8:29 sound?

Good teams find a way to scratch out wins in tight contests.

Until recently, concerns have been raised about how Michigan State would fare in clutch situations due to the fact that the team doesn’t seem to have a clear go-to closer.

The Spartans have relied on one or two of their 10 rotation players to step up. Against Michigan, it was Jase Richardson and Tre Holloman, who scored 11 and 10 second-half points, respectively.

Down the stretch against Purdue, it was Jaden Akins, who contributed four of the nine points during MSU’s game-sealing run. Frankie Fidler also showed up with a team-high nine points in the second half of that one, too.

During the final 15-0 push at Illinois, Jaxon Kohler had a 6-0 run by himself and had 11 total points in that second half.

Someone new has popped up each time.