Michigan State Falls 83-71 To Rivals

The game started well enough as there were a number of highlight plays in the opening segment. Michigan State got a defensive stop to get things going and Jeremy Fears drew a foul on Michigan’s 7-3 center, Aday Mara, but he would then turn it over passing to Kohler when play continued. Mara would get the first bucket of the game after that, but a Divine Ugochukwu to Carson Cooper alley-oop evened it up. Cooper blocked Mara’s shot on defense, but Coen Carr and Fears each missed three-pointers on MSU’s possession. After another stop, Cooper drew foul number 2 on Mara, but it did not lead to any points. On um’s next trip, Lendeborg made the move to get past Carr, but Carr recovered and got a block from behind. The only negative was our inability to score and we were trailing 7-2 at the first commercial break.

Apparently one of Mara’s fouls was changed to someone else during the commercial, beginning a string of bizarre officiating that favored the visiting team. To open the next stretch of play, um got a bunch of offensive rebounds and hit a 3 eventually. Fortunately, Jaxon Kohler had the answer from the corner for our 2nd field goal. But that would be the end of our scoring for a while and we eventually found ourselves in a 1-11 stretch. It was 15-5 at under-12.

Jeremy Fears got on the board by weaving through traffic and pulling up for a short jumper, but MSU immediately gave up a triple to Trey McKenney, the freshman who chose ann arbor over East Lansing. The teams then traded offensive fouls. Trailing 20-7, Fears took the ball to the basket and drew a foul on Cadeau for an and-1 to get MSU within 10. After a stop, MSU turned it over for the seventh time. And after another stop, Fears airballed a three from the top of the key. 20-10 bad guys at the under-8. 4 field goals in 12 minutes is about as bad a start as MSU could have imagined. This felt like we were already facing a dire situation needing to get something going before halftime to get our confidence up and to keep the crowd a factor.

Jesse McCulloch had the good defense on Mara out of the commercial, and Jordan Scott hit a three for us. Next trip, Scott got blocked from the same spot leading to a baseball pass and easy bucket for um. Jeremy Fears came up with the answer for his 7th points. McCulloch then had another big defensive play and drew an immediate foul to earn a trip to the line where he hit both and got the team within 5. After giving up a basket, Fears picked up Mara’s third second foul by stopping short in front of him while bringing it up court. Fears’ free throws got it back to 5. But um had the answer with a three from Cadeau. MSU drew a shot-clock violation after a Carr airball that sure looked like it grazed the rim on the way down. The ensuing scramble to get a shot off in time was just a bit late. 27-19 at the under-4.

McKenney opened the final segment with a turnaround jumper to push the lead back to 10. Fears drew another foul in the lane and hit both FTs. He now has 11 of our 21. Cam Ward drew Lendeborg’s second foul going for the rebound, but the play was reviewed based on a Dusty May challenge. Half an hour later, they announced that the call was changed to a hook-and-hold on Ward. So Yaxel got two technical FTs, which he hit, and um retained the ball back up ten… where Lendeborg immediately scored off the inbounds pass and was fouled for a three-point play. Suddenly, the deficit was 13. After a Kohler shot was blocked, um came back with another triple by McKenney and Izzo had to call a timeout down 16. Frustration clearly settling in as Fears got called for a flagrant foul chasing down Yaxel after a long rebound on a Kohler missed-three led to a fast break. After splitting the technicals, MSU got a stop and started pushing down court. Carr got the ball and tried to elevate for the dunk but was fouled in the air. Carr would make both, but with time running down in the half, Will Tschetter drew a shooting foul on Scott when he totally put his shoulder into Scott. Izzo should have challenged it. Instead, um got two more at the stripe. Just before the halftime buzzer, Carr did get a dunk, but the score at the break was 42-26 Wolverines.

MSU was 7-26 on FGs and 2-12 from deep. On top of that, they turned the ball over 11 times to help um have a 7 FGA advantage. Jeremy Fears was the only Spartan with more than one made field goal through twenty; in fact, Carr’s dunk at the end of the half made him the only Spartan with more than 3 points. Things are not looking good as we head to the second half. This team needs to start hitting some deep shots to cut into the deficit and figure out a way to cover Lendeborg.

Two early makes by Carr and two more FTs for Fears quickly got MSU within 10. um got four back quickly before a Fears-to-Coop oop, and after a stop on Mara, Carr drew a foul and hit his FTs. Fears then got a steal on defense and took it all the way himself for the layup and a foul on Lendeborg, his third. After the freebie, it was a 7-point game. Another um turnover, another Fears bucket. On the next MSU trip, we got Carr open for a corner three, but the shot did not find the bottom. At the under-16 timeout, MSU was within 5, 46-41.

A Kohler post-move on Mara got MSU within 3 halfway through the next segment. Ugochukwu gave up a shooting foul to Cadeau on a triple try; Cadeau made two of three. Carson Cooper was called for an offensive foul, his third, and it was 50-45 michigan with just under 12 minutes to play. We already shaved 11 off the halftime deficit.

Play got started with a flagrant foul on um’s McKenney (after another lengthy review). Scott hit two technicals to get the score within three, but his triple try on the ensuing possession did not fall. After giving up a basket, Scott made up for his last miss by driving and scoring an and-1, which would be McKenney’s 3rd foul. Two-point game! Shot clock violation on um! Izzone is jumping! After giving up a triple, Fears answered with a jumper to keep it a one-possession game. With Fears getting a quick break, Kohler stepped out to hit the triple and tie the game at 55. A Teng foul sent the game to the under-8 all notched up.

Fears with the highlight play to resume the action, getting the down-low steal and then going end to end for the layup and the first MSU lead of the game. Michigan would tie it at the line, but Jordan Scott put MSU back up with a driving bucket. Will Tschetter’s contested three put um back up a point, and MSU burned a timeout. The Spartans came up empty after the huddle, and a Carr foul led to two FTs and a three-point deficit. Carr earned his way to the line right afterwards, but he picked a bad time to have his free-throw woes return. After a Wolverine shot rolled all the way around the rim yet somehow did not fall, Kohler drew MSU within 1 at the line. MSU would go empty on their next few possessions and give up five before calling a timeout, down 69-63 with 3:05 to go.

Fears drew contact in the lane and went to the line with 2:48 remaining, where he brought MSU to within 4. Lendeborg got the points back, and then Fears turned the ball over dribbling off his leg. MSU forced the miss after playing 29 seconds of defense, but um got the rebound and called timeout with 1:38 left and holding a six-point lead. After their timeout, um scored in the lane. After an MSU miss, it was time for the Spartans to start fouling intentionally. Lendeborg put the visitors back up ten with 1:07 left, which was probably the dagger. Fears finally hit a triple, his first in five attempts, with 54 ticks on the clock. From there, the strategy of putting um on the line did not pay any dividends. MSU fell at home 83-71.

Jeremy Fears scored 31, a new career high, but he needed 20 shots and 14 FTAs to get there. Kohler added 12 while Carr and Scott each had 10. The rest of the team only had 8 points as only 6 Spartans got in the scoring column. We did clean up the turnovers in the second half, ending with 14 but just 3 after halftime. We lost the rebounding battle by one, 37-36, though we had more offensive boards, 15-11.

Michigan State, just like in the Rutgers game, showed the ability to go on a big run to get back even in this game. But the visitors were the better team for the majority of the 40 minutes. I can’t help but think back to the two officiating decisions in the first half – the removal of one of Mara’s fouls and the reversal of a michigan foul to a Cam Ward hook-and-hold, the latter of which led to a five-point um possession. Who knows how this game would have gone had those two calls not gone the way they did. Not blaming the refs entirely, but those were some bizarre sequences.

Not the way Tom Izzo was hoping his 71st birthday would go. I hope he wishes for a better start for his team in the next game. Our Spartans fall to 9-2 in the conference and a game out of first place.

At least our hockey team won at Penn State 6-3.