Michigan State takes down rival Michigan in 59-53 victory

Michigan State’s defense stood firm against one of the best offenses in college basketball when the Michigan Wolverines came to East Lansing Saturday afternoon. Despite a poor offensive performance, MSU got ahead early and didn’t look back, winning 59-53.

Michigan State was led by its veteran junior point guard A.J. Hoggard with 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting. Hoggard also contributed six assists, four rebounds, two steals, and only one turnover. Malik Hall also led the team in scoring with 15 points with Tyson Walker adding 14 points. Joey Hauser added seven points and 10 rebounds.

Michigan was led by Hunter Dickinson’s 18 points and 7 rebounds while Kobe Bufkin added 15 points.

The Michigan State and Michigan rivalry builds up more and more each year. After some comments made by Dickinson on his podcast, the Izzone student section was locked in and ready to go. Dickinson was welcomed by boos the second he touched the floor before the game began and received loud cheers from the MSU students with every miss he had during warmups.

The game started very slow on both ends of the court. Michigan State didn’t score its first basket until two minutes into the game when Walker hit a transition 3-pointer. The offensive struggles continued for both teams, shooting a combined 3-for-14 before the first timeout of the game. The Spartans didn’t score their second field goal in the game until the 13:14 mark when Hoggard made a layup to cut the Michigan lead to 7-5.

With less than eight minutes left in the first half, the game was knotted at 12 apiece. Both teams were shooting 5-for-18 (27%) from the field and each had five turnovers. The tenacious MSU defense stepped up to make up for the slow start offensively, holding Michigan scoreless for nearly three minutes right before the half. Shortly before the buzzer at the end of the first, Michigan State’s Malik Hall appeared to turn his ankle and was gingerly walking it off. This was a concern for Spartans' fans as Hall just returned two games prior against Buffalo from a foot injury suffered at the end of November.

Michigan State closed out the half leading 27-18. Michigan’s 18 points were its fewest scored in a half this season. MSU was led by Hall’s nine points and Walker’s five. Hauser and Mady Sissoko both had five rebounds. Michigan’s season leading scorer, Dickinson, was held to just four points.

To start the second half, Michigan came out in a 2-3 zone defensively to try and slow down Michigan State’s pick-and-roll offense. This didn’t work as Hoggard buried a 3-pointer and Hauser hit a jumper to force Michigan coach Juwan Howard to take an early timeout. Michigan didn’t hit a field goal until the 18:26 mark, ending a seven minute field goal drought going back to the first half.

With 15 minutes left in the game, a tough Walker layup pushed MSU's lead to 13, which was the largest lead in the game to that point. Hall was the first Spartan to reach double-digits shortly thereafter at the 14:01 mark with a jumper from the paint.

As many teams in college basketball do, the Wolverines weren’t going away without a fight. As Michigan State big men Sissoko and Jaxon Kohler got in foul trouble and Michigan seized the opportunity and started to fight its way back. The Spartans' once 14-point lead fell to single digits with just under seven minutes remaining in the game as the teams began to exchange baskets.

The game continued to tighten as Michigan cut the lead to four with 3:55 remaining on a pair of free throws by Jett Howard. Momentum seemed to be shifting a little as Michigan went on a 6-0 run down the stretch before a layup by Hauser with 3:30 left in the game halted it. In a last ditch effort in the final minutes, the Wolverines began fouling to send the Spartans to the free throw line. MSU proceeded to shoot 11-for-13 to ice the game.

The Michigan State victory brings the Spartans to 11-4 on the year and 3-1 in the Big Ten. Michigan loses its first league game of the year, falling to 9-6 overall and 3-1 in conference action. The teams will revive the rivalry in Ann Arbor next on Feb. 18.

The Spartans return to the court again when they travel to Wisconsin for a big league matchup on Tuesday, Jan. 10. The game is set to tipoff at 7 p.m. Eastern Time and will air nationally on ESPN.

Join in on the discussion on today's game in the forum here (for subscribers).