Spartans Shoot Lights Out Here in Evanston Dismantling the Wildcats 64-44

Spartans Shoot Lights Out in Evanston Dismantling the Wildcats 64-44

Welsh-Ryan Arena

Evanston, ILL

The roller coaster season continued but this time instead of accelerating downwards, the Spartans once again started their accent towards the top. Sitting squarely on the NCAA bubble after having had their ticket punched to the big dance the last 17 years, this team came away with a 64-44 victory. The Spartans record improved to 16-8 (7-4) on the season.

Michigan State shook off the remnants of Saturday's loss to Illinois by great ball movement and tough defense. Early transition points helped and getting to the rim opened up opened up a 10-4 lead early in the half.

While MSU didn't shoot well from behind the arc early on, a high number of open looks did fall to increase the lead by 12 just with about 8 minutes to play. Northwestern look scrambled and off their game plan, following that. They started trying to match 3's but to no avail. In typical fashion, Brandon Dawson owned the glass. After the game, Coach Tom Izzo said "Dawson was unbelievable early. He defended, he rebounded, he started our fast break." Dawson exclaimed that, "We came out with intensity and energy and made a statement."

If shooting is contagious, there was a pandemic on hand at Welch-Ryan Arena, as seemingly everyone’s confidence to stroke it grew with each shot. The Spartans shot 46% for the game and an astounding 52% from the three. Star Denzel Valentine said of the Spartans shooting performance, "We needed it really bad."

At the half, only Bryn Forbes was in double figures for Michigan State but six other players managed to get on the score sheet. Izzo said "We might have played out best half of basketball."

The second half started exactly the same. A bank in 3 by Denzel Valentine, and a turnover on the opposite end opened up a 41-14 lead.

Buckets were coming so easy for the Spartans, at one time during the second half after Dawson scored a basket on accident for the Cats (that was their first from the field in nearly 15 minutes) Dawson had scored more points for Northwestern than the Wildcats had themselves in the second half.

As a reporter at the game, I'm paid to tell you what happened. I'm not sure how many more ways I can say, "It went in. Then the next one, and the one after that." It was almost laughable from the Spartans on the bench. I even made a deep three in the trash with my rough draft of this story. Travis Trice said he was so happy to see them going in "Especially the way we've been shooting lately."

If you wanted to be critical of something, mid-way through the second half the Spartans only managed six points inside the paint, but when you're throwing up three's, I guess you can't throw up layups and 12 footers. If the analysis of this team is living and dying by the three, this team was living life to the fullest.

Like most things, it had to come to end at some point. The game started to feel like a mid-summer baseball game where the starting pitcher was pulled early and an innings eater had to come in and finish the mess that was already created.

At times, Northwestern created a little bit of a run, and Tom Izzo didn't seem pleased at how it was progressing but he let the team play and the hung on to a 20 plus lead or more for the second half and finished 20 point winners, on the road, and in the Big Ten.

With the win tonight Tom Izzo continued his climb up the ladder of success that may never be equaled at MSU. He is now tied at #3 on the all-time career Big Ten wins (228) with Purdue coach Ward "Piggy" Lambert and only Bobby Knight (353) and Gene Keady (265) are ahead of him. Both of those men Izzo considers with an almost reverence.

Moving forward, Izzo said tonight was only a small step towards the future, but Dawson in the locker room, thought the team could definitely capitalize on some sort of momentum gained tonight. The Spartans will return to action in a monster game on Saturday at Noon at the Breslin Center. With the Spartans on the bubble, stealing a win over Ohio State could do a lot to get them off of that proverbial bubble.

That game can be seen on ESPN.