Akins, Holloman Put Offense on Their Backs in MSU's Victory

The Michigan State Spartans fought their way to victory over the New Mexico Lobos to advance to the Sweet 16 portion of the NCAA Tournament. The entire MSU basketball program was feeding off the hot crowd all night, which only fueled the Spartans to make the most of the second half.

After going into halftime down by 2, the Spartans returned to the court with business to take care of. When MSU needed a big moment in the game, the team had two players to lean on: senior guard Jaden Akins and junior guard Tre Holloman.

The MSU faithful know a thing or two about how effective Akins can be when he's on, and man, was he on in Sunday night's victory. The regular season leading scorer for the Spartans continued his hot hand in the tournament, dropping 16 points as well as one rebound and one assist.

Akins also drilled two 3-point shots, one of which increased their lead in the second half. After freshman guard Jase Richardson got off to a cold start after carrying the team, Akins made sure he reminded people what he's about and what he is trying to accomplish at the end of his senior year.

As we all know, teamwork makes for more success, and luckily for Akins, Holloman was that right-hand man coming off the bench. The bench shined bright in the victory for MSU but no reserve was better than Holloman, who dropped 14 points, draining two from beyond the arc as well as collecting four assists and three steals.

Holloman has been the Spartans best kept secret this season in high-leverage situations. The junior averaged 9.1 points per game during the regular season and has already surpassed that in the first two games of the tournament, earning back-to-back double-digit performances.

Senior forward Frankie Fidler also deserves an honorable mention as he also cracked double-digit points for MSU. For the Spartans, who ranked seventh in the Big Ten in average points per game, they flirted with that total in the victory, finishing just under what they averaged during the regular season with 78.4.

Now, as the Spartans continue to march forward, Coach Tom Izzo and the rest of Spartan Nation would love to see similar results from Akins, Holloman and the rest of the program as they get an inch closer to history.

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