Michigan State Uses Hot Start To Take Down Notre Dame 81-63
East Lansing, Mich. — Michigan State (6-1) jumped on Notre Dame (6-1) 9-2 in the first 2:22 of game action and never looked back cruising to an 81-63 victory over the No. 5 Irish.
The No. 3 Spartans took a 46-26 lead into halftime with a balanced scoring attack and a dominating performance on the boards holding a 13-1 edge at one point. Notre Dame senior forward Bonzie Colson and senior point guard Matt Farrell opened the game 0-for-7 and were unable to find much of a rhythm in the first half to allow the Spartans to jump ahead quickly.
Notre Dame made it interesting in the second half cutting the lead to seven points (53-46) with 13:09 left. But, that was as close as the Irish would get as the Spartans slowly built its lead back up to 20 points.
Here’s a look at each half and how No. 3 Michigan State took down Notre Dame in East Lansing.
FIRST HALF
Michigan State won the opening tip and started off with a bang as guard Cassius Winston knocked down a three-pointer to open the scoring.
Sophomore Nick Ward recorded a tip-in on the next possession to put the Spartans up 5-0 early. Sophomore Irish guard TJ Gibbs connected on a layup to get Notre Dame on the board.
Michigan State responded with free throws by Ward and an alley-oop dunk in transition by sophomore wing Miles Bridges to go up 9-2 in the first 2:22 of game action.
Junior guard Rex Pflueger connected on a big three to stop the bleeding for the Irish, but Michigan State responded with a 5-0 to take the lead up to 14-5 before Gibbs made a big three-pointer to halt some of Michigan State’s momentum.
The Spartans took a 14-8 lead at the 16-under timeout. A 6-0 run extended Michigan State’s lead to 20-8 with 14:00 left in the half. Michigan State extended the run to 10-0 before Gibbs again stopped the run with a three-pointer to close the Irish gap to 24-11.
With 10:02 left in the half, Michigan Stated held a 31-11 advantage in a dominant first 10 minutes of the game. The Spartans controlled the glass in the opening half of the first 20 minutes with a 12-1 edge at the 10:49 mark. Michigan State shot 12-of-17 from the floor while holding the Irish to 4-of-13 during the opening 10 minutes.
Notre Dame was unable to make much of a dent in the Spartans’ lead over the next seven minutes with Michigan State holding a 41-22 lead with 3:06 left in the half.
Colson was able to get on the board during that stretch with four points while the Spartans continued their balanced scoring attack getting baskets from four different players (Joshua Langford, Xavier Tillman, Gavin Schilling and Ben Carter).
Michigan State pushed its lead to 46-24 for its largest lead of the half at 22 points. Gibbs connected on his fourth basket to give him a team-high 11 points to cut the lead to 46-26 heading into the break.
Pflueger contributed seven points to go with six via Colson to lead the Irish in scoring. The Irish finished the half 11-of-29 (37.9 percent) overall including 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) behind the arc. The Spartans countered with a 18-of-35 (51.4 percent) clip with a 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) on its three-point attempts.
Langford led the Spartans with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting while Winston (8), Bridges (7), Ward (6) and guard Matt McQuaid (5) rounded out the balanced offensive attack.
Michigan State held a 24-11 edge on the boards and 13-4 on second-chance points. The Irish bench was also shutout in the half while the Spartans got 11 points from its reserves.
"Something we got to think about," Mike Brey said following the game in regards to slow offensive starts. "I think I would give credit to poor offensive rhythm to great defenses two games in a row in Wichita State and certainly these guys.
"It's grueling when you have to dig out of a hole. Hopefully, we can be better in first halves, so we're not digging out of a hole."
SECOND HALF
Notre Dame came out hot in the opening minutes of the second half going on a 12-2 run to cut the Michigan State lead to 48-38 with 16:35 left.
Pflueger opened the scoring with a three-pointer while Geben followed it up with a basket of his own. Colson went on a personal 4-0 run after Ward knocked down a jumper to close the gap to 48-35 with 17:14 left in the half. Farrell connected on a three to force a MSU timeout with its lead down to 10 in the early stages of the half.
The Irish extended its run to 9-0 before Bridges connected on a tough layup to put the Spartans back up 10 at 50-40 with 15:52 remaining.
Farrell scored of four of the next six Irish points to cut the Michigan State lead to 53-46 with 13:09 left before Langford and Ward connected on their own field goals to push it back to 57-46 with 11:29 left in the half.
The Spartans slowly grew the lead to 63-51 with 7:09 left while Notre Dame went scoreless for two-plus minutes and missing six-straight field goals after Pflueger hit a three with 10:42 left.
Notre Dame couldn’t close the gap over the next three and a half minutes with the Spartans holding a 74-59 advantage at the under-four media timeout (3:37) after a three-pointer by Winston. The sophomore followed it up with another three to extend the team’s lead to 77-59 just over three minutes remaining.
A dunk by big man Martinas Geben ended what was a 10-0 run by Michigan State which put the advantage up to 2- points at 79-59.
It was uneventful final 2:46 with Michigan State taking down Notre Dame 81-63.
Colson finished as the top scorer for the Irish scoring 17 points and grabbing a team-high six rebounds. Pflueger contributed a career-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting while drawing Bridges on defense at times. Farrell notched 10 points and seven assists with Gibbs adding 11 points, two rebounds and three assists.
Overall, the Irish shot 24-of-54 (44.4 percent) from the field which included a 13-of-25 (52 percent) performance in the second half. Notre Dame finished 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) behind the arc.
Langford and Winston scored 17 points with Winston adding five rebounds and seven assists. Bridges finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists. Ward added 12 points and five rebounds.
The Spartans connected on 31-of-60 (51.7 percent) its field goal attempts including 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) from the three-point line.
Michigan State finished with a 42-21 rebounding edge including 15 offensive rebounds which led to 20 second-chance points.
"I loved our fight in the second half," Brey said. "...They're really good. They are a heck of a team. They're as good as anybody in the country. Learned a little bit about our group. Hats off to them because they were really ready to play. Any time we made a little run in the second half somebody made a big shot again."
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