It wasn't pretty for the first 30 minutes, but the Michigan State Spartans once again dominated the final 10 minutes of the game and pulled away from the Iowa Hawkeyes to secure the outright Big Ten title for the 2024-25 season by a score of 91-84.
Jase Richardson led the Spartans with 22 points. Four other Spartans also scored in double figures. Jaxon Kohler and Jaden Akins both scored 15 points. Jeremey Fears poured in 14 points and Tre Holloman scored 11.
Kohler led the Spartans in rebounds with six while Akins and Holloman paced the Spartans with four assists apiece.
The Spartans got off to a strong start in Iowa City, running out to an early 11-5 lead at the first media timeout. But the Spartans seemed to take their foot off the gas pedal. The remainder of the first half was marred by a sloppy, unfocused effort.
Iowa first heated up from the perimeter, hitting three of their next four three pointers to claim the lead. The Hawkeyes then started to punish the Spartans in the paint over the next seven minutes.
Similar to the home loss to Indiana, the Spartans struggled to score against the Hawkeye's 2-3 zone for much of the first half. Michigan State went just 1-for-11 from the field.
In total, the Hawkeyes went on a 8-0 run and followed it with a 14-0 run sandwiched between the single basket by the Spartans. At the nine-minute mark, the Spartans were down by two touchdowns, 27-13.
Richardson finally got the lid off the basket with a three-pointer at the 8:34 mark. The Spartans, led by their star freshman, were then able to slowly chip away at the lead. After another deep shot from Tre Holloman, Richardson scored the next nine points for the Green and White.
At the half, Michigan State trailed Iowa 37-30 and were trailing in all aspects of the game. Iowa was outshooting (48% to 40%) and outrebounding (18-to-17) the Spartans. Iowa also committed fewer turnovers (six to four) and had more shots from the free throw line (eight to three).
The Spartans had another surprisingly poor free throw shooting night, hitting just 20-for-30 (67%).
The teams traded baskets to start the second half with Michigan State cutting the lead down to five points on more than one occasion.
But the intensity of the game went up a notch at around the 13-minute mark when Tre Holloman was picked off by an illegal screen by Hawkeye Even Brauns. For a moment, it looked like Holloman might draw a technical foul for getting into the face of Iowa guard Brock Harding.
The Spartans made a few sloppy plays in the direct aftermath of the foul, including a badly missed dunk in the lane by Coen Carr, but Michigan State finally seemed to find a level of intensity following the play that had been missing earlier in the game.
After a five-point spurt from the Hawkeyes pushed the lead back to ten points, the Spartans went on an 18-2 run of their own to reclaim the lead. Coen Carr provided a pair of high-flying dunks, the second of which gave the Spartans the lead for good.
Carr finished the game with eight points and five rebounds, the majority of which came in the second half.
After trading a few baskets around the seven-minute mark, the Spartans went on a 14-0 run to extend the lead to 17 points with under four minutes to play.
The Hawkeyes did not go down without a fight. They continued to play hard, caused a few late turnovers, and hit a trio of three-pointers in the final three minutes. For a few moments, Spartans fans were forced to recall their last visit to Carver Hawkeye arena when they blew a 13-point lead with 90 seconds to play.
But this time around, the lead never got below six points, and the Spartans have the Big Ten title all to themselves.
Michigan State returns to East Lansing on Sunday to face Michigan on Senior Day to close out the Big Ten regular season. The game tips off at noon and will be televised on CBS.
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