Entering Thursday night, there were a ton of question marks surrounding Tom Izzo, Branden Dawson, and the rest of the Michigan State Spartans. They answered a few in their win over Indiana, but what kind of performance would they put forth against the Iowa Hawkeyes in another tough conference match-up?
The first half led to more questions than answers for the Spartans, but the second half seemed to answer all of those question.
Iowa held a large lead after the first 20 minutes of play, but couldn’t hold off a Sparty onslaught in the second. Michigan State used a big second half push to score their second straight impressive Big Ten win, a 75 – 61 decision over the host Iowa Hawkeyes.
In the first half, things started out great for the Spartans. Behind three-pointers from both Denzel Valentine and Travis Trice, Michigan State was able to open up an early 8 – 2 lead, just over two minutes into the game.
The teams would go back-and-forth over the next nine-plus minutes of the game, with Michigan State never giving up the lead. Whenever the Hawkeyes would get to within a point or two, the Spartans always had an answer on the offensive end.
Gabriel Olaseni made seven straight points for the Hawkeyes, with a lay-up at the 7:59 mark giving the Hawkeyes a three point lead, 23 – 20.
Iowa would stretch the lead to 11 points, coming out of the last media timeout of the first half, thanks to a Peter Jok three-pointer with 2:50 left to play.
The teams would trade baskets as the first half wound down, with Iowa maintaining their 11-point lead heading into the intermission.
At the end of the first half, the Iowa Hawkeyes held a comfortable 39 – 28 lead.
On the surface, and from the way the first half played out, it looked like Iowa was in cruise control and looked like they would come away with the victory.
As the basketball world knows all too well, the game’s not over until the final buzzer goes off. The second half is a brand new half of basketball, and anything can happen.
The Spartans opened the half making three of their first five shot attempts from the field, but couldn’t trim the deficit to anything less than 8 points, as Iowa always had an answer.
After the first media timeout of the second half, the Spartans embarked on a 19 – 4 run, highlighted by a Branden Dawson dunk and capped off by seven straight points from Travis Trice. The run gave the Spartans a 53 – 48 lead, and there was more to come from the green and white.
Olaseni would make one costless throw, and Jarrod Uthoff would make a lay-up for the Hawkeyes, but Trice would answer with another here pointer, giving him 10 straight points for the Spartans.
From there, it was Bryn Forbes’ turn to shoulder the scoring for the Spartans, as he scored 6 straight points of his own to stretch Sparty’s lead to 64 – 53.
As the game wore on, Michigan State continued to roll on the offensive end. Denzel Valentine would score 8 points over the last five minutes, and Iowa was held to just 8 points as a team over the last six minutes of the game.
Michigan State was able to overcome a lackluster first half, and outscored the Hawkeyes 47 – 22 in the second half, to cruise to a 75 – 61 victory in their first conference road game of the season.
Last night, in the preview for this game, this writer identified Travis Trice and Jarrod Uthoff as the two players to keep an eye on in this game. Both players didn’t disappoint, and lived up to the pre-game hype.
For the Hawkeyes, Uthoff recorded a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds in a losing effort. Big man Gabriel Olaseni led the way for the team, scoring a team-high 18 points in 26 minutes off the bench.
For the Spartans, Travis Trice had one of the best shooting performances of the season to lead the Spartans to victory. Trice scored a game-high 25 points, and was a dazzling 7-of-8 from behind the three point line. Branden Dawson recorded another double-double, adding 14 points and 15 rebounds in the win.
Denzel Valentine was on triple-double look as the game wore down, finishing with 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists.
The Michigan State Spartans (11 – 5, 2 – 1) appear to have turned a new leaf, and are playing the style of basketball they are most known for. They are outrebounding their opponents, distributing the ball effectively on the offensive end, and are playing stingy defense. They will look to keep that trend going in their next Big Ten game, as they welcome Northwestern to the Breslin Center on Sunday.
For the Iowa Hawkeyes (11 – 5, 2 – 1), Thursday night’s loss was their first in Big Ten play, and it ended their three game winning streak in the process. The Hawkeyes will look to get back on track in their next outing, as they travel to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Tuesday.