Michigan State basketball’s win over Western Michigan on Monday afternoon will go down as a double-digit victory with the Spartans winning 80 to 62, but this was not an easy win by any means for MSU.
It seems like these games that occur during winter break for players can, understandably, be uncharacteristically sloppy, and that was the case on Monday. Michigan State turned the ball over 17 times and had to overcome a sloppy start and a couple runs from Western Michigan to earn win number eleven on the season.
Of course, it helps that Western also turned it over 17 times.
This was an interesting match-up for MSU, though, as it featured former Michigan State assistant coach Dwayne Stephens, who is now the head coach at Western Michigan. And boy can you see his MSU roots all over that program. It’s rare that Michigan State plays a team that is as focused on rebounding and transition offense as they are, but you can definitely see Tom Izzo’s influence over Stephens’ Broncos. At times, Western was actually out-rebounding the Spartans, which is impressive. They ended with seven less rebounds than Michigan State, and the turnover margin was not as big as we usually see, with MSU only winning in that category 23 to 16.
In the box score, Jaden Akins, led the way with 18 points while Carson Cooper also added 13. I thought that Cooper in particular did not play well to start the game, but found it as the game continued and ended up being the best center on the team in the win.
While the box score won’t necessarily show it, I thought that Jase Richardson and Coen Carr actually played the best on the team for MSU. In a game that was often a little sleepy and low energy, I thought those two players, specifically, played with a lot of energy and woke the team up, so to speak.
The Spartans will resume conference play on January 3rd on the road against Ohio State.
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