Spartans rally to win after giving up lead to Maryland

Joey Hauser scored 20 points and Tyson Walker had 17 and Michigan State rallied after scoring the game’s first 15 points to beat Maryland 6358 on Tuesday.

A.J. Hoggard had 10 rebounds and eight assists for Michigan State.

“We just got back to being more aggressive with everything, shooting the ball, guarding better, really trying to hold them down,” Walker said.

“I feel like he (coach Tom Izzo) can trust me to play the games and fight through. That’s the biggest thing that we have.

“We were pretty good. We know that we have given up leads before, so we just try and ride together, stick together.”

Jahmir Young scored 17 points for Maryland, Hakim Hart 12, Julian Reese 11 and Donta Scott 10 for the Terrapins.

The Spartans (15-9, 7-6 Big Ten) used an 8-0 run in which Walker made a layup and 3-pointer wrapped around a 3 from Jaden Akins for a 52-48 lead with 7:44 remaining and Michigan State led for the remainder. The Terrapins erupted for a 12-0 run in less than three minutes in the second half turning a 38-26 deficit into a 38-all tie. Young and Hart posted back-to-back three-point plays, and Hart’s 3-pointer with 13:01 knotted it at 38. Prior to that 3, Hart was 3-for-last-27 shooting from beyond the arc. Maryland finished shooting 3 of 22 from distance.

Michigan State started the game with a 15-0 run and led 31-22 at halftime. Coming off an 81-46 win over Maryland (16-8, 7-6 Big Ten) on Saturday, the Terrapins have yet to win backto-back contests in almost three years.

“I thought that most of the game we played damn good,” Izzo said. “Our defense was so good until we got a little tired and got back-cut a couple of times. I thought we did a good job on most of their best players. You would hope to win by a little bit more, but that tells you how good of a team that they are.”

Michigan State travels to play Ohio State on Sunday.