Winston carries Spartans as MSU clinches outright Big Ten title

Michigan State didn’t follow a smooth script in defeating Wisconsin, 68-63, and clinching the outright Big Ten regular season championship Sunday in Madison, Wis., but Tom Izzo is happy to take it.

The No. 2-ranked Spartans (28-3 and 16-2) looked like the best team in the country for a few moments in the first half while building a 10-point lead, but Izzo’s quest for a strong, consistent 40 minutes of basketball from this team will have to extend into the postseason, because he didn’t get it today.

But he got the title, MSU’s first outright league championship since 2009. The Spartans played for the National Championship that year, and hope to win it this year. That quest will begin, sort of, next week at the Big Ten Tournament in New York. But first, the Spartans had a mild celebration on the court following this game, but nothing demonstrative.

“It’s almost not as joyful as it should be because I think they’re just spent,” Izzo said. “I think mentally and physically this team has gone through the wringer a little bit. They have done an unbelievable job.

“We’ve won 12 game in a row. That’s not easy to do in any conference, anywhere. We’ve had this tough road stretch at the end of the season (with five of the last seven games on the road). And we’ve done it through some adverse circumstances. You put all those things together and I’m just very proud of this team.”

With the onset of one-and-done time, the Spartans will need a more efficient version of Miles Bridges than the one on display, Sunday. Bridges, MSU’s star player whose status for this game was in doubt on Friday after reports from Yahoo! revealed that his mother may have received $400 from a sports agency, was 3-of-15 from the field for 10 points.

Izzo said Bridges was cleared to play after MSU's compliance office and the NCAA looked into the Yahoo! report and the expense reports from sports agency runner Christian Dawkins which claimed the payment.

“There was one major issue with the $400 that we and they have found to be completely not true as of what we know now,” Izzo said. “It was cleared in the research that we did and that the NCAA did and I give (credit to) both Jen Smith and our compliance department, and the fact that the NCAA moved on it quickly. There are reasons that they did. They cleared him to play or I wouldn’t have played him"

Izzo said he is confident Bridges is cleared to play for the rest of the season.

“I am," Izzo said. "I am, in every way, shape and form."

Bridges' two free throws with :04 seconds left turned a 3-point lead into a safe 68-63 margin for the Badgers’ final shot.

“I thought we looked a little mentally fatigued,” Izzo said. “We made some mistakes that we normally haven’t made. But when it was winning time, Cassius: big shots, Jaren Jackson: big shots. Miles and Jaren: big free throws. That’s what championship DNA is all about.

"We got some stops, we played some D. It was a tough, physical, hard-fought game.

"These guys deserved to win, they played hard enough to win but we have to give Wisconsin credit, they played awfully well too."

This marks the eighth Big Ten regular season championship for Izzo, something he cinched a share of on Tuesday but wanted sole possession of it for this team on this day.

DIFFERENCE-MAKERS

Sophomore guard Cassius Winston scored 20 points and came to the forefront to rescue the Spartans from a mid-game team scoring drought. The 20 points marks his career high for a conference game.

Winston, the Big Ten’s leader in 3-point field goal percentage, was 6-of-6 from beyond the arc. Two of those 3-pointers came while playing shooting guard and sharing the backcourt with Lourawls Nairn. Michigan State had to play it that way for a few minutes due to foul trouble for Josh Langford, who fouled out in the final minute.

Nick Ward also battled foul trouble but finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

Bridges led Michigan State on the glass with eight rebounds as the Spartans held a 40-28 edge on the boards.

Jaren Jackson finished with 11 points, si rebound and two blocks. He was 1-of-6 from 3-point range, but the one he hit gave Michigan State a 55-51 lead with 5:24 left, answering one of many charges from the Badgers (14-17 overall). Wisconsin had won three straight games prior to this one.

After Jackson's triple, Winston hit a 3-pointer on MSU's next possession from NBA range in a desperation situation as the offensive possession went nowhere initially due to communication problems. But Winston called for the ball, launched from deep and gave MSU a 58-51 lead with 4:40 to play.

“That one was a dagger,” Izzo said. “I couldn’t believe that he hit that. Cassius was just the maestro down the stretch."

Michigan State committed 13 turnovers, which isn’t a terrible number, but it proved to make for a costly disparity against a Badger team than committed only four turnovers.

The combination of the turnover disparity and cold shooting from the Spartans for the first 30 minutes of the game made this one tight. Michigan State was shooting just 40 percent from the floor through the first 30 minutes, but became hot late and finished at 43.4 percent.

“We did a good job in a lot of areas,” Izzo said. “We rebounded pretty well. We didn’t turn it over a ridiculous amount. It was such a tough game and so many things to handle and we handled most of them.”

DEFENSIVE PROBLEMS? NOT REALLY

Freshman guard Brad Davison led Wisconsin with 30 points, on 10-of-19 shooting. He had success initially against Winston on the drive, then against Langford, and later, Matt McQuaid.

Star Wisconsin post player Ethan Happ had 13 points on 6-of-17 shooting but found tough resistance inside from Ward, Xavier Tillman, Jackson and Gavin Schilling. Tillman played 12 minutes and had a career-high three blocked shots. Jackson was effective early in the game in arriving as a help defender against Happ.

“Nick did a pretty good early (against Happ),” Izzo said. “X (Tillman) did a pretty good job. Jaren did a pretty good job the stretch, too. We put a lot of bodies on him.

Happ and Davison attempted 61 percent of Wisconsin's 59 shots. Davison was productive, but not dominant. He simply took a high volume of shots and made 52 percent of them, including two or three difficult ones.

The Badgers shot 37.3 percent from the field as a team.

* MSU had a season-low 10 assists against scrappy Wisconsin defense.