Michigan State Outlasts Oregon to Grab Fifth Straight Victory
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It certainly wasn't Michigan State's prettiest game, but it got it done.
Tuesday night's game was extremely tight for about 26 minutes, but then the 10th-ranked Spartans pulled away from Oregon with a 25-6 run to ultimately win 68-52 on the road. It's MSU's fifth consecutive victory, while it's the Ducks' fifth straight loss.
Carson Cooper set a new career-high 19 points, also finishing with seven rebounds in the process. Coen Carr also made several big plays, hitting three shots from beyond the arc in a game for the first time in his career and finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds himself.
The Spartans (17-2 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) will return to East Lansing now. They host Maryland on Saturday (noon ET, CBS).
First Half
MSU got out to a lead very quickly. Oregon scored first, but Michigan State quickly built a seven-point lead at the first media timeout and led 13-4 at one point. The Ducks settled in to prevent the Spartans from going on a massive run to start the game, as the home team started to cause some dysfunction in MSU's offense. Michigan State went four minutes without scoring, starting at about the 15-minute mark to the 11-minute mark.
Then Oregon also began to hit a couple of threes. The Ducks aren't a particularly good three-point shooting team, but they began 4-for-7 from beyond the arc to help keep pace with the Spartans. These also weren't lucky shots, but rather semi-rare quality looks the Michigan State defense was surrendering.
It ended up just being a 28-26 MSU lead at halftime. Cooper led the Spartans with nine points and five rebounds. Michigan State had only shot 3-for-12 from beyond the arc, with two of those makes actually coming from Carr. The Spartans also had seven turnovers to Oregon's three.
Something else that stood out from the first half box score was that star forward Jaxon Kohler only played seven minutes, as he had picked up two fouls during that time. MSU definitely seemed to miss him on both ends.
Second Half
Michigan State had been one of the best second-half teams in the Big Ten, while Oregon had been one of the worst. It did not really seem that way during the opening minutes of the second half. MSU and the Ducks traded buckets, but Oregon grabbed momentum around the 14-minute mark by grabbing a three-point lead.
Sloppiness continued for Michigan State, committing uncharacteristic turnovers, like when Divine Ugochukwu tried tossing an alley-oop from beyond half-court to Cam Ward, even though the Spartans had a 5-on-4 advantage with an injured Duck behind the play.
The Spartans needed a response, and the offense started to run through Carr. He hit a third three-pointer of the game during the second half, and he started to make some impressive rebounds and take a leadership role as time ticked down. Cooper also had some more buckets, setting a new career-high by scoring his 19th point with 6:40 to go. That led the way during an 18-4 run that put MSU up 11 with about seven minutes to go.
Michigan State's momentum kept carrying over. The Spartans led by 16 at one point, were up 13 at the final media timeout, and finished out their fifth straight win.
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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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