Following a nine-day hiatus, the Michigan State men's basketball team returned to the Breslin Center on Monday for its final game of the 2024 calendar year and its final non-conference game of the 2024-2025 regular season. The Spartans hosted a competitive Western Michigan team, and ultimately earned an 80-62 victory.

It was a homecoming for Western Michigan head coach Dwayne Stephens, who played at Michigan State from 1989 through 1993, and spent 19 years as an assistant coach to Tom Izzo from 2003 until 2022.

The victory marked the sixth-straight win for Michigan State, as the Spartans improved to 11-2 overall (2-0 in Big Ten play). The Broncos fell to 3-9 overall on the season.

Michigan State guard Tre Holloman got the scoring going on Monday afternoon, as he drilled a 3-pointer on the Spartans' opening possession.

Western Michigan responded to Holloman's triple with an 8-0 run. WMU guard Brandon Muntu hit a 3-pointer of his own, guard/forward Markhi Strickland made a layup, and Muntu hit another trey to give the Broncos an early 8-3 lead with 17:07 left to play in the first half.

Michigan State went on a 15-3 run from there, taking an 18-11 lead following a pair of free throws by point guard Jeremey Fears Jr. with 11:33 remaining in the opening half.

WMU scored the next four points, trimming the Spartans' lead to just three points at 18-15 with 10:13 left before halftime, before MSU guard Jaden Akins scored on a jumper to extend his team's lead back to five points.

At the under-eight-minute media timeout, the Spartans had a 27-18 lead, capped off by a dunk from forward Xavier Booker off of an excellent pass from freshman guard Jase Richardson.

The Broncos scored the next four points after the media timeout, thanks to baskets from guard EJ Ryans and big man Max Burton.

The Spartans followed that up with a 6-0 spurt, as Akins hit a jumper and center Carson Cooper made a second-chance layup and finished off an alley-oop dunk off of an assist from Holloman. At that point, MSU led 33-22 with 4:00 left on the clock before the break.

A layup from Western Michigan guard Chansey Willis Jr., free throws from Akins and a buzzer-beating tip-in from MSU center Szymon Zapala before time expired made up the final points of the first half.

Michigan State led 37-24 at halftime. Akins led the Spartans with 11 points at the break, while Muntu led the Broncos with six points.

Both teams struggled with turnovers in the first half, as both squads gave the ball away 11 times after 20 minutes of play.

Western Michigan came out of the locker room with some energy to begin the second half. Baskets from Burton and Strickland, and 3-pointers by Willis and forward Owen Lobsinger, made up a 10-0 run for the Broncos to cut MSU's lead to just three points, 37-34, with 17:41 remaining in the game.

Michigan State responded with a layup from Zapala and a 3-pointer by Akins to push the lead back out to eight points at 42-34 with 16:57 left on the clock. Willis answered for the Broncos with his own triple. The back-and-forth action continued, as Zapala made another layup, Strickland made a layup on the other end, and Holloman drilled a 3-pointer.

At the under 16-minute media timeout, Michigan State had a 47-39 lead with 15:15 left to play in the game.

The Broncos continued to battle over the next four-minute stretch. At the under-12-minute media timeout, the Spartans clung to a six-point lead at 51-45, with a jump shot by forward Frankie Fidler extending the Spartans' advantage.

Michigan State took control of the game for the final 11-plus minutes.

The Spartans went on a 7-2 run with free throws by forward Coen Carr, an alley-oop dunk and made free throw by Cooper and a second chance layup by Zapala to give MSU a 58-47 lead with 9:30 remaining on the clock. A basket by Lobsinger made the score 58-49 at the under-eight media timeout.

With 3:58 left to play, Michigan State grew its lead to 11 points at 67-56, which followed a jumper by Fears.

From that point forward, MSU closed out the game on a 13-6 run to win by the aforementioned 18-point margin, which included a 3-pointer by Carr (his second game in a row hitting a shot from deep) and a 2-point jump shot from guard Nick Sanders.

Akins led Michigan State with 18 points, while Cooper had a career-high 13 points, to go along with six rebounds. Zapala had a game-high nine rebounds.

Willis led Western Michigan with 12 points and Burton chipped in 10 points.

Both teams turned the ball over 17 times.

Michigan State shot 50% from the field (27-for-54) and 30% from 3-point range (6-for-20). Meanwhile, Western Michigan made 24 of its 58 field goals attempts (41%) and seven of its 23 attempts from 3-point range (30%).

Michigan State will now jump back into Big Ten play with a 2-0 conference mark thus far. Next up, the Spartans will travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State on Friday (8 p.m. Eastern Time on FOX).

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