Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast: Recapping Spartans' Win Over Rutgers

That's 12 straight wins for No. 8 Michigan State men's basketball.
The Spartans did enough to come out on top in its meeting with Rutgers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, downing the Scarlet Knights, 81-74.
Michigan State had moments where it could have blown the lid off Saturday's contest, but Rutgers hung in there, constantly fighting back down the stretch to make things difficult for the Spartans, but as it has done before this season, Tom Izzo's team finished, adding another grimy win to its record.
These types of victories should prove to be valuable for Michigan State when it gets to March, and even before then when it takes on a brutal stretch next month.
Our Aidan Champion recaps Saturday's game on this latest edition of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast. You can watch the episode below:
Michigan State was able to pull off Saturday's win despite losing the turnover battle, 15 to 6. Of those 15, 10 were committed in the second half when the Spartans bested their first-half scoring display, 46-35.
The Spartans did outmatch Rutgers in points in the paint (42 to 26), bench points (50 to 34), rebounding (44 to 34), second-chance points (16 to 11), assists (19 to nine), blocks (eight to two) and field-goal percentage (48.2% to 33.8%).
"Give Rutgers credit; I mean, they did a hell of a job," Izzo told CBS analyst Bill Raftery after the game. "And I think he's [Steve Pikiell] one of the best coaches in our league. They had injured guys, and they outplayed us most of the way. If it wasn't for [Jase] Richardson and Coen Carr, we would have been in trouble. But we found a way to come back, and good teams got to win games that they don't play their best, and I think we did."
Richardson finished with a career-high 20 points while Carr scored 14.
Michigan State improved to 17-2 on the season and 8-0 in conference play. It will look to close out January with a win over Minnesota at the Breslin Center on Tuesday before heading out West to kick off what will be a very tough month of February.
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