Michigan State defeats Nebraska 67-64, advances to take on No. 1 Indiana
No. 9-seeded Michigan State took the court Thursday morning (local time) looking to avenge its loss to No. 8-seeded Nebraska from earlier this season and did just that in defeating the Cornhuskers 67-64 to advance tot he quarter finals. Michigan State for over 37.5 minutes of the game and never trailed by more than a single point from start to finish. It also marked the first time MSU has defeated UNL in the Big Ten Tournament, having fallen 86-58 in the lone prior meeting between the two in 2014.
The victory marks a third-straight win for the Spartans, who move to 16-13 overall, while Nebraska falls to 16-14.It also should prove helpful for the Spartans NET ranking as the team currently sits at No. 48 before it will be updated later to reflect the victory over the Huskers who sat at No. 42.
Sophomore guard DeeDee Hagemann led Michigan State in scoring with 18 points, while tying for team-high in assists with three and notching two steals. Senior guard Moira Joiner added 16 points, three assists, and five boards along with the team-high four steals. Graduate guard Kamaria McDaniels rounded out double digit scorers for the Spartans with 12 points and a team-high six rebounds.
Nebraska's Jaz Shelley led all scorers with 24 points. Sam Haiby added 14 and Alexis Markowski scored 12 while getting a double-double thanks to 13 rebounds.
Michigan State got on the board first, scoring the first seven points of the game and forcing Nebraska to call an early timeout at the 8:21 mark. The Spartans used a full court press to great effect early, grabbing three steals before the midway point of the quarter. MSU forced 26 turnovers in the lone meeting between the two teams in the regular season and acting head coach Dean Lockwood clearly aimed to repeat that success as much as possible in this one.
UNL struggled offensively to start the game, going just 1-of-10 from the field as MSU took an early 11-3 advantage. The Spartans weren't able to capitalize offensively as well as the team would have liked in the opening stanza, though, leading just 15-9 at the end of the period on 6-of-13 shooting, and just 1-of-5 from 3-point range.
Nebraska finally found its footing on the offensive end early in the second quarter, using a 6-0 run to cut the Michigan State lead to 22-20 with under six minutes left in the half. The Spartans had ball security trouble of their own, including six turnovers in the second quarter that led to eight points for the Huskers. By comparison, seven turnovers in the first led to zero points for UNL. Hagemann and senior forward Taiyier Parks led the Spartans in scoring in the first half with six points each, though Parks’ had early foul trouble and would later foul out in the closing minute of the game.
Things got tight in the third quarter as Nebraska tied the game at 36 at the 5:51 mark thanks to an and-one for Haiby who drew a foul by MSU's Joiner on a made 3-pointer. That capped a Husker 6-0 run over 1:18 of game play, but Matilda Ekh hit a trey to halt the UNL run. The Spartans suffered an over two minute field goal drought following the 3-pointer and gave up to Nebraska its first lead of the game after a pair of Shelley free throws. The Huskers led 41-40 with 2:36 left in the third quarter. Hagemann responded with a spectacular spin move under the basket with three seconds left, drawing the foul on Isabelle Bourne and hitting the point after to retake the lead for Michigan State 46-44 heading into the final quarter.
Michigan State opened the final period the same way as the first, on a run, this time scoring the first eight. The run gave MSU its first double-digit lead, 54-44, as the Huskers called a timeout at the 7:25 mark. The Spartans would go on to lead by as much as 13 before the Huskers responded to make one last attempt to keep their Big Ten season alive. Nebraska mounted its own 8-0 run to cut its deficit to just five as the clock ticked down to the closing moments. Then UNL's Bourne hit a 3-pointer with just 44 seconds remaining to cut it to 67-64. Despite an offensive foul on Ekh with :15 remaining to give Nebraska a chance to tie it up and force overtime, back-to-back trey attempts by the Huskers Shelley and then Maddie Krull missed the mark and the Spartans advanced to the next round.
Michigan State will take on No. 1 seeded Indiana tomorrow. The Hoosiers are currently ranked No. 2 in both the AP and Coaches Polls while coming off the 2022-2023 regular season conference crown. MSU defeated IU in East Lansing on Dec. 29 when IU was ranked No. 4.
Tipoff for the game is set for 12:30 p.m. Central Time and the game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
Postgame Quotes
DEAN LOCKWOOD: First of all, just very, very proud of this team, just for their resilience and their grit today. We talked about that in the locker room just now. We had a 13-point lead. Again, I have to go back and look at the exact time frame, it was something close to seven minutes left in the game, and we were up by 13. Obviously playing a very good Nebraska team. We have a lot of respect for that team. Leading in the league in three-point attempts. They've got a prolific scoring team. They've got Shelley, who's the hottest player in the league right now for our money. We knew this was a task. We knew they had kick and fight left in them. But we're very proud of this team, the grit and resilience. I think this team has really committed defensively here more in recent days, and it's shown. It's shown. Again, just these two players here are stalwarts for us defensively, but just our team, our team. This was all about our team. We can get into numbers and things later. But I just want to say we are so proud of the grit and the unity and the resilience of this basketball team today. Very proud.
Q. You guys handed Indiana their first loss of the season, a ranked team. That was such a huge accomplishment. What worked for you so well in that win to be able to accomplish that?
MOIRA JOINER: The same thing it did today. That's why the games got close and we pulled out with a win. It was honestly defense and sticking together. When we do that, we have each other's backs. We're not -- we're really hard to beat, and I think tomorrow I'm excited to play them again.
DEEDEE HAGEMANN: Yeah, I have to say unity of purpose, that's how we beat Indiana. Just staying locked in all 40 minutes.
Q. I'll ask you the same question. Big task going up against Indiana tomorrow. What worked so well for you in handing them their first loss of the season earlier this year?
DEAN LOCKWOOD: I was hoping you could help me with that, you know, it's been so long. I just told them in there, I'm dating myself with this one, but I feel like we just knocked out Frazier and now we've got Ali waiting for us. It's just like holy cow.
I think, to answer your question in all seriousness, we were very much who we are in that game. We pressed. We pressured. Obviously you've got to make shots. Defense and rebounding can certainly keep you in games, but you also have to make some shots, you have to score points.
So we had some people produce in that game, and again I thought our shot selection was pretty good. Again, Indiana is a very, very good team I think without Grace Berger. We've got the Indiana with Grace Berger now. That's another task. Once we can enjoy this for another five or ten minutes, we're going to think about that and get right back to more headaches.
I just think, to go to your question, we were who we were, and we stayed consistent with that. It's very easy sometimes, especially when you play a really good team who's very prolific, you can get swept away by the current. You can get sucked into a game that you don't want to play. So I think for us we were very much in sync and staying the course with who we were in that game.