Tom Izzo needed just one more win to break Bob Knight’s all-time Big Ten wins record.

However, Indiana spoiled the party with a 71-67 win giving Michigan State its first home loss of the season.

Michigan State’s hopes of winning the Big Ten regular season championship are dwindling. The Spartans control their own destiny, but the margin of error is decreasing now that they are a full game behind first-place Michigan.

“It is disappointing,” Jaden Akins said about the loss. “With our goals, you can’t drop a game like this. We got to just try to recover.”

Indiana’s press and zone defense gave the Spartans trouble for most of the game. Michigan State only scored nine points in the final 11:16 of the first half.

In the second half, the Spartans had eight turnovers against the Indiana defense.

“Teams know we like to run,” Akins, who scored 14 points, said. “They just ran the press to slow us up and then they would get back in the zone to chew the clock. They had a good game plan.”

Sometimes, the game is as basic as making shots.

Sometimes, the game is as difficult as making shots.

That was the biggest problem for the Spartans on Tuesday. They shot 4-for-23 from 3-point range. Michigan State currently has the worst 3-point shooting percentage (28.8%) among all power conference teams.

“I think for us, it was just shots,” Jase Richardson, who went 1-for-6 from 3-point range, said. “We didn’t hit shots, 4-for-23 from three. When shots aren’t going down, it’s hard to get up and get them out of that zone, so it was kind of difficult for us to do that.”