Turnover Woes Cost MSU Women in Rivalry Loss at Michigan
In this story:
To expect a win against a top-10 rival on the road, you have to take care of the basketball. Michigan State women's basketball didn't do that on Sunday.
The 13th-ranked Spartans were in Ann Arbor to take on No. 7 Michigan at the Crisler Center. They ended up turning it over a season-high 24 times, including 12 in the second quarter alone, in a 86-65 loss to the Wolverines on FS1. Entering Sunday, Michigan State averaged 12.6 giveaways per game.
This is MSU's fourth loss in its last five games, with all of those defeats being against ranked opponents. The skid began with a 94-91 overtime loss to UM two weeks ago Sunday in East Lansing.
Michigan State's hopes of being a top-4 seed in March Madness and getting two rounds of valuable home-court advantage are in some jeopardy. On Saturday, prior to this result, the NCAA revealed that the Spartans would be a 4 seed at 14th overall if the season ended that moment.
Game Recap
Things actually started out pretty promising for the Spartans. They looked like the stronger team for the first 10 minutes of the game, doing fine at protecting the ball and making Michigan take some difficult shots. MSU ended up going into the second quarter with a 21-15 lead.
Then, well, the second quarter happened. It seemed like anything that could go wrong, did go wrong during this period. The turnovers in the second quarter snowballed and snowballed some more, definitely appearing to become more of a mental issue than anything UM did after the first handful or so.
The stats from the second quarter are the story of this game. Michigan was plus-10 in the turnover department in this quarter alone. The Wolverines ended up attempting 22 shots in the frame, while MSU only got seven off (again, compared to a dozen giveaways). UM ended up outscoring Michigan State 26-9 in the second half and ended up flipping a six-point deficit into an 11-point advantage at halftime.
MSU never recovered from that point. It played fine during the second half, but it never built up any serious momentum or threatened to come back. The hole it dug itself was too large. Against a team as good as Michigan, the Spartans needed to play well for 40 minutes, and that 10-minute lapse made the difference.
Two different Spartans also went down with injuries in the second half. Rashunda Jones left the game with what appeared to be an ankle injury, but the scary one was the one involving Juliann Woodard. She went off in a wheelchair after being inadvertently being elbowed around her right eye by teammate Grace VanSlooten with about four minutes to go.
Michigan State will now return to East Lansing with only three games remaining in its regular season. The Spartans will host Northwestern, one of the worst teams in the Big Ten, on Wednesday (6:30 p.m. ET, B1G+).
Keep up with all our content when you follow the official Spartan Nation page on Facebook, Spartan Nation, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be sure to share your thoughts on MSU's recruiting of the Benke brothers when you join our community group, Go Green Go White, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE. Don't forget to give us a follow on X @MSUSpartansOnSI as well.
Never again miss one major story related to your beloved Spartans when you sign up for our 100% FREE newsletter that comes straight to your email with the latest news. SIGN UP HERE NOW
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.
Follow jacobcotsonika