[jwplayer ThHMsta4]
Michigan State basketball cruised to a season-opening victory over short-handed Eastern Michigan, 83-67, thanks to a career-high performance from the Spartans’ new starting point guard — Foster Loyer.
Loyer hit 6-of-10 three-point attempts on Wednesday night to lead the Spartans with a career-high 20 points. Loyer also finished with two assists.
Joey Hauser (15 points), Gabe Brown (12 points), and Joshua Langford (10 points) also joined Loyer in the double-digit points column in the Spartans’ season-opening victory. Wednesday was the first time Langford had played in nearly two years after battling foot injuries the past few seasons.
It was announced shortly before tipoff that Eastern Michigan would be missing six players in this match-up, leaving the Eagles with only eight available players. It is unclear why the Eagles were without those players.
MSU got off to a sloppy start in the opening half of the season, with Eastern Michigan hanging around for the better part of the first half. The Eagles held a 19-17 point with 8:50 to go in the first half, but from that point on the Spartans took control. MSU ended the first half on a 26-to-8 run to take a 43-27 lead at halftime.
Loyer was the first half star for the Spartans with 17 of his career-high 20 points coming in the first 20 minutes.
The Spartans were able to build upon their halftime lead, with MSU leading by as many as 21 points in the second half. Eastern Michigan was never able to get the game within single digits in the second half.
MSU finished the game shooting 54.5% compared to 40.6% for Eastern Michigan. The Spartans were especially impressive from behind the arc, hitting 12-of-28 (42.9%) from three-point range against the Eagles.
One area that’ll need to be improved is protecting the basketball (yes, that issue again). The Spartans had 18 turnovers, which will surely be something head coach Tom Izzo will address moving forward.
Next up for MSU is the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame on Saturday. The Spartans will host Notre Dame at the Breslin Center, with tipoff at 8 p.m. EST. The game can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
[vertical-gallery id=32394]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1363]