Michigan State women's basketball snapped a four-game losing streak Sunday afternoon while celebrating Title IX and Alumni Day. The Spartans defeated Rutgers 85-63 in front of over 5,000 fans in attendance.
The victory for MSU moves the Spartans to 11-9 overall and 3-6 in league play. Rutgers drops to 8-13 on the season and 2-7 in Big Ten action.
The victory matched a season-high 85 points for the Spartans in Big Ten action despite shooting just 23.1% from 3-point range on the day. Michigan State instead relied on 46 of its 85 total points in the paint, including 18 fast break points and 28 total points off of 19 Scarlet Knights' turnovers. The bench also came up big, scoring 45 total points for the team.
Taiyier Parks led Michigan State with 14 points and seven rebounds and added one steal. Three Spartans scored 13 points, Matilda Ekh and Moira Joiner both hitting the mark alongside freshman guard Abbey Kimball achieving a career-high. Joiner was second on the glass for the team with six boards while Kimball notched two steals.
Overall, Kimball hit career-highs in points, minutes (16), field goals made (five), 3-point field goals made (two), rebounds (two), and assists (two). Fellow freshman Theryn Hallock also hit a career-high mark with four steals, matching DeeDee Hagemann for the team-high. Hagemann scored seven points while leading the team in helpers with eight, a season-high for the sophomore point guard.
Kaylene Smikle led all scorers with 27 points for Rutgers while Kai Carter notched 11 points and Chyna Cornwell added 10 points for a shorthanded Scarlet Knights squad. Just eight players were dressed for RU, forcing the team to play a short bench with only one player seeing the floor for fewer than 22 minutes.
Less than two and a half minutes into the game and Michigan State had opened with a 9-0 run and never looked back. By the closing buzzer, MSU had outscored RU 27-10.
The second quarter was much the same for the Spartans who continued to build on the team’s commanding lead over the course of the next 10 minutes. After MSU twice pushed its lead out to 19, Rutgers was able to use a 9-4 run to trim its deficit to just 14 at the midway point, trailing 21-35. Michigan State responded with an 11-0 run to open up a 46-21 lead. By the final buzzer at the end of the second stanza, it was MSU up 48-26 heading into the locker room for halftime.
Rutgers was able to finally make a run in the third quarter –taking advantage of five MSU turnovers to the tune of six points – and eat into the Scarlet Knights’ deficit. RU was able to outscore MSU 18-15 in the period as the Spartans went cold from deep, going just 0-of-4 from 3-point range. By comparison, Michigan State shot 6-of-17 from deep while giving up just two turnovers in the first half. It was still a commanding 63-44 lead for the Spartans at the end of the third quarter.
The final stanza saw Michigan State get back on track with outscoring its opponent. After letting Rutgers narrow the gap by in the third quarter, MSU outscored RU 22-19 in the final period. 16 of the Spartans 22 points came from the bench while Michigan State returned to a focus on ball security with just two turnovers in the final period. By the end of the quarter, it was a final score of 85-63 for Michigan State.
The Spartans have a bye week ahead and return to the court next on Jan. 29 on the road at No. 21 Illinois. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be carried on the Big Ten Network, one of just two remaining games in the regular season scheduled on linear television for the season. The other is the second-straight road game scheduled at Nebraska on Feb. 2 following the trip to Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.