MSU maintains NCAA hopes with gritty must-win
Spartans’ defense smothers Northwestern in final minutes
EAST LANSING – Nothing came easy. Shots weren’t falling. Every possession felt increasingly familiar, another rock fight in a season filled with them. The recent history of the past two weeks was trending against Michigan State basketball in a close game such as this.
Even on its home court. Even on senior night.
Three straight losses, two of them at Breslin Center, put the Izzone on tilt with an electricity of years gone by — only instead of the excitement of a Big Ten title hanging in the balance, this was nervous energy borne from fighting to preserve a quarter-century NCAA tournament streak.
Down a point to Northwestern with 3:29 to play Wednesday night, the Spartans gathered in the huddle around coach Tom Izzo. Not much needed to be said to get the message across to each other. They knew the perilous predicament they were facing.
“Win. Simple. Win,” senior Malik Hall said. “Do what it takes.”
With that, MSU proceeded to put together one of its grittiest closing stretches, overcoming its warts and inconsistencies with big defensive stops and key offensive plays.
Tyson Walker drove into the paint and finished two tough layups through tall traffic. Tre Holloman knocked down four clutch free throws, including two with 9.4 seconds to play after absorbing a big-time collision with the Wildcats’ Brooks Barnhizer.
And the Spartans’ defense forced the Wildcats to miss eight of their final nine shots, including one final attempt by Boo Buie with Holloman hounding him and A.J. Hoggard crossing the lane to alter the shot. The ball banged high off the glass and grazed the front of the rim. Holloman elevated and batted it down court to Walker.
The horn sounded on MSU’s hard-fought 53-49 victory. A game so close there wasn’t a chance for Izzo to give his seniors their typical
check-out chance to say goodbye to their fans.
“You just can’t lose your last one here,” said Walker, who scored 19 points despite going 8for-21 from the field. “That’s bad. It ruins the celebration.”
A celebration Walker and his teammates hope will carry over into Selection Sunday in a week and a half.
MSU (18-12, 10-9 Big Ten) closes out the regular season Sunday at Indiana (4:30 p.m., CBS), then moves into Big Ten tournament play next week in Minneapolis. But the victory over Northwestern (20-10, 11-8) gave the Spartans their fifth Quad 1 win of the season via the NCAA’s NET Rankings, which play a sizeable role in determining the field of 68.
“I think I’m just dumb enough, I still think we have some game left in us,” Izzo said. “I think there’s things we can do.”
Walker, Hall and Steven Izzo went out with a victory in their final game at Breslin. Three other fourth-year seniors — A.J. Hoggard, Mady Sissoko and Davis Smith — also were celebrated after the game and got their chances to kiss the midcourt logo, but they potentially could return for an extra year of eligibility with the
COVID waiver from their freshman season in 2020-21.
And with the help of a raucous crowd that was a factor from the tipoff until the end of the senior night ceremony, MSU avoided its first three-game skid at home for the first time since 1997. Which, after a shaky start and tumultuous season, should remain the last time the Spartans missed the NCAA tournament under Izzo.
“It means a lot for me. I think it means a lot for every other guy on the team,” Hall said. “This is one of the most connected teams that I’ve been a part of here. … But I think just moving forward, everybody, we have to stay focused. We have to enjoy it, but we just gotta stay focused if we want to do what we want to do.”
Hall put together perhaps his finest allaround game with 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. The senior forward scored nine points and grabbed 11 boards in leading a second-half comeback after MSU fell behind by five points at halftime. He added two blocks and two assists.
“That was a man’s night for him,” Izzo said of Hall. “I’ve never seen him go like that.”
Every bit of it was necessary, too, after such a sluggish start for the Spartans.
MSU scored just 20 points, its second fewest in a half all season, and shot a season-worst 21.9% in the first half. Walker was 3-for-11 at that point, Hoggard and Jaden Akins combined to miss all eight of their shots.
“We had to win the game. There was nothing else to it. And I think everybody knew,” Hall said about the locker room scene during the intermission. “Steve-o said something, Davis said something, I said something. We all just (knew) we had to win the game, we had to play better. No matter what it takes.”
Izzo, despite calling it an ugly win in which he felt little progress was made, pointed to the accountability he saw from his team in that moment behind closed doors as one of the biggest positives.
“Players got on players. There’s another place we grew,” Izzo said. “Players got on players. It was not a big yelling and screaming locker room.”
It wasn’t perfect. Far from it.
The Spartans went 2-for-17 from 3-point range, with two in the first half by Holloman the only makes from deep. Over the past three games, MSU has made just 15 of 54 3-point attempts (27.8%).
Akins, Walker and Hoggard combined to miss all nine of their attempts from 3. Hoggard finished with six second-half points while Akins went scoreless and missed all seven shots from the field. The Spartans recovered enough in the second half to finish shooting 31.7%, still their worst shooting performance of the season and the second straight game below 40%.
“I don’t know why we’re not shooting the ball well, because I think I got enough good shooters,” Izzo said. “We’ve been struggling with it. I say that (and) we’re one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the league. I don’t know. Confusing.”
MSU held Northwestern to just 35.3% shooting, limiting the Wildcats to 2-for-10 from behind the 3-point line in the second half after they made 5 of 11 in building their halftime lead. The Spartans forced 12 turnovers, six of them steals, while committing just eight.
“When you don’t make shots like that, it’s hard to keep playing defense,” Izzo said. “So if there’s another thing I’ve learned, it’s that we can keep playing defense.”
MSU also controlled the glass, 46-35, and took advantage of Northwestern being without 7-footer Matthew Nicholson. The Spartans’ 19 offensive rebounds were their most since getting the same amount against Iowa on Feb. 2, 2021.
“Winning a game and only scoring 53, that’s big,” Walker said. “We played a lot of defense. We did some some good things. We haven’t really put a full game together, offensively and defensively, for the whole time. So when we get that going, it’s a totally different game.”
That is Izzo’s big hope, that this group can finally figure things out fully. Especially without the crutch of having the Izzone to fuel their fire in moments of despair.
“I think we can enjoy it and we can still be in the moment as far as enjoying each other’s company, enjoying playing together for our last couple of times, however long it may be,” Hall said. “But I think we just got to continue to emphasize staying focused and emphasizing getting better each day.”