Michigan State outlasted Maryland Saturday evening to sweep the Terrapins on the season. After defeating UMD by a one score advantage in College Park last month, MSU finished in a flurry of scoring late to send the Terps home with a 63-54 Spartan victory.
MSU improves to 6-5 in league play with the win, while moving to 14-8 on the season overall. UMD drops to 13-9 overall and 5-6 in Big Ten action.
Tyson Walker and Malik Hall finished the game with 19 points apiece to pace the Spartans. Walker now ties the MSU record for scoring in double figures in 33 straight games, while Hall finished 8-for-11 from the free throw line and had the team high on the glass as well with seven boards.
While no other Spartans finished in double figures scoring, Jaden Akins had a strong night with seven points and five boards and A.J. Hoggard led the team in helpers with eight and steals with three. Carson Cooper was also second in rebounds with six and had a team high three blocks.
Jahmir Young led all scorers with 31 points, while Donta Scott finished the evening with a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 boards.
The Spartans got on the board first and stayed there throughout the first half. The Terps kept it close through the first media timeout, though, trailing 9-5 at the U16 break and with 15:36 left in the opening half.
Coming out of the break, MSU saw Walker open up the largest lead of the half. Walker had two-straight baskets on second-chance opportunities for the Spartans, scoring five of his 12 points in the half, and finishing off a 7-0 run started by Hall prior to the media break to open up a 14-5 lead for the Spartans with 13:46 left.
Maryland finally managed to snap the run by Michigan State from there, mounting a 10-2 run of its own to bring it within one. UMD trailed just 16-15 with 9:33 remaining in the half.
The teams kept it close until halftime, MSU never growing its lead out by more than six but never allowing UMD to get it closer than two. At the buzzer for halftime, it was 31-27 Michigan State.
The Spartans were much stronger in their offensive attack in the first half than in College Park. MSU scored 18 points in paint compared to 12 in last month's matchup, but Michigan State also took half (five) as many attempts from deep (10) as the team settled for at XFinity Center. The team still struggled on the boards, giving up eight offensive rebounds in the half, one more than last month's road matchup, and coughed up seven turnovers in the half.
Young was tied with Walker for the game-high at the half with 12 points, while Scott had 11. UMD had just one other player score in the first half, while MSU had seven players besides Walker with points, but none with more than five.
Maryland faced tough luck as a team right at the outset for the second half as Julian Reese picked up a fourth person foul on a moving screen against Akins just seven seconds into the half. He made a beeline for the bench where he spent much of the half, not coming in again until 11:08 mark. While Reese did not score in the game until 1:25 remained when he went to the free throw line and hit both shots, his absence was certainly felt for UMD.
The teams continued to keep it close to begin the second half. MSU's inability to push its lead out past five remained the case through the first media timeout, doing so once before UMD cut it to within three, trailing 34-31 at the first break.
The game loosely mirrored the second half in College Park through the next stretch as neither team was able to score much, resorting to a defensive battle. It was just 36-33 at the U12 media break and 11:08 remaining.
The Spartans finally lost the lead in the next stretch, though, as the Terrapins mounted a 9-3 run, only broken up by a trey from Akins early in the stretch, lasted through the next media break to take the only lead of the game for the Terps. A layup by Young with 7:15 left in the game gave UMD a narrow 42-41 lead. Just :13 seconds later Hoggard found Sissoko for an alleyoop to retake the lead and never give it back.
That alleyoop kicked off a 16-2 run for the Spartans as MSU sprinted ahead to a 57-44 advantage with 3:05 left. While the Terps managed to dig in and get to the free throw line down the final stretch to stem the tide, Maryland was only able to trim the deficit down to single digits in the closing minutes.
Michigan State will look to extend its win streak to three Tuesday night when it takes on Minnesota in Minneapolis. Start time is set for 9 p.m. Eastern Time with the game streaming exclusively on Peacock.
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