MSU Uses Offensive Avalanche to Bury Cornell, Close Non-Con Schedule
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EAST LANSING, Mich. --- The final Michigan State basketball game in 2025 was not very pretty, especially if defense is one's preference.
After a tight, high-scoring first half, ninth-ranked MSU surged in the second to outlast Cornell on Monday night, 114-97. That's tied for the fifth-most points in a single game in program history, and the most since a 118-point game against Alcorn State in December 2008. It's the most points the Spartans have allowed all season, though the Big Red did enter the game averaging 90.4 points per game.
Six different MSU players ended up reaching double figures. Jeremy Fears Jr. led them all, scoring a career-high 21 points to go with 11 assists. Coen Carr was shortly behind him in the scoring column, ending with 19 points himself. Trey Fort had 14 points, Divine Ugochukwu had 12, Jaxon Kohler had 11, and Kur Teng had 10.
The Spartans, now 12-1 on the season, will move on to a big road test on Friday against undefeated No. 13 Nebraska. Cornell fell to 6-6 with its loss to MSU.
First Half
MSU's start was... slow. Really slow. Cornell's elite three-point shooting seemed to catch the Spartans off guard in the opening minutes, as the Big Red were the more energetic. The road team was suddenly up 15-4 about four minutes in before the Spartans seemed to awaken from their Christmas slumber.
Michigan State settled in a bit, but Cornell was continuing to make its shots and actually maintain its multi-possession cushion. The concerning part is that the Big Red were finding a fair amount of easier looks in the paint or at the rim.
There was not a big run for the Spartans to quickly climb back, but a fair amount of smaller ones. Michigan State had three separate 5-0 mini-runs to erase that early Big Red advantage, taking its first lead of the game with about five minutes to go in the first half. David and Goliath traded baskets and leads the rest of the first half.
Fears was MSU's leader to start. He scored 15 first-half points, including a buzzer-beating floater, along with five assists. He and the Spartans ended up taking a 55-53 lead into halftime.
Second Half
Whatever MSU's Tom Izzo said in the locker room, it appeared to have an early effect. Michigan State looked much sharper in the early part of the second half, going on a 14-2 run before the first media timeout of the half, helping the Spartans' lead reach a dozen.
Suddenly, MSU's defense seemed to find some footing, as the Big Red's field goal percentage early in the second half was drastically lower than their numbers from the first. Michigan State started to extend its lead into solid double-digit territory, allowing the atmosphere at the Breslin Center to go from nervous to relaxed.
Cornell actually began the second half 1-for-16 from beyond the arc to begin the second half. That's a heck of a feat for the Spartans' defense, since the Big Red entered Monday making more threes per game than any other team in college hoops while making them at a clip north of 40%.
The road team made some more shots towards the end, but it was well too late to come back at that point. Michigan State continued to rack up the points itself, finishing at an eye-popping total of 114 in what ended up being a comfortable victory.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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