Three-point flurry carries Spartans past Buckeyes

Ohio State vs Michigan State

Basketball coaches like to tell their players to “make yourself hard to guard.” Michigan State followed that classic piece of advice on Tuesday night in East Lansing, while Ohio State didn’t. That, in short, explains why the Spartans topped the Buckeyes, 67-58, to move to 3-0 in Big Ten competition.

Points didn’t come easy for most of the night in the Breslin Center, as furious action around the rim prevented anyone on the floor from getting garbage buckets. With Ohio State’s big men blocking 5 shots in the game’s first 12 minutes, Michigan State’s plan to attack the lane had to be revised. If the Spartans were going to become hard to guard, they needed to reverse their approach.

They did, to the chagrin of their injury-depleted visitors from Columbus.

Instead of playing the game from the outside in, the Spartans—after the first half’s under-eight-minute television timeout—began to play from the inside out. Instead of driving to score the ball, as they had done in the game’s first 12 minutes, Spartan guards used penetration to set up kick outs and create ball movement on the perimeter. Crisp tic-tac-toe passing repeatedly set up open three-point shots, and when the treys started falling, the Buckeyes fell behind.

From the under-eight timeout to the under-four TV timeout, MSU outscored OSU by a 16-3 margin. During this span of roughly four minutes (7:53 to 3:54), the Spartans hit 5 three-pointers, with four different players knocking down shots. Kalin Lucas hit two threes, while Korie Lucious, Chris Allen and Raymar Morgan also hit one triple apiece. The shooting barrage represented the night’s best offensive stretch for either club.

The Spartans didn’t scorch the nets for the rest of the evening, but because the Buckeyes couldn’t generate any consistent offense of their own, Tom Izzo’s team used its one short stretch of high-quality shooting to great effect in this game. Michigan State played the whole second half with a reasonably comfortable working margin, as Ohio State never got closer than eight points after halftime. The final spread of nine points was the result of two OSU baskets in the final minute of regulation, a cosmetic alteration that couldn’t hide the Spartans’ relatively comfortable victory.

MSU’s first-half parade of threes was significant not just for the scoring punch it offered, but for the balance it gave the Spartans. The 16-3 run was not just the product of one player; it’s instructive to note that four players contributed to that spurt. Because MSU had several three-point threats, the Spartans truly became hard to guard at the offensive end of the floor. The proof of this reality can be found in the fact that seven MSU players scored at least 5 points. At the other end of the floor, the Buckeyes found only four players who could do the same. Thad Matta’s men once again encountered great difficulty at the offensive end, three days after failing to crack the 60-point mark in a loss at Minnesota. While Michigan State rained in the threes (eight of them, all told), Ohio State sniper Jon Diebler was limited to just one trifecta, a key element in MSU’s solid defensive outing.
Michigan State leads the Big Ten for a reason: Tom Izzo has a ballclub that can win with power on the boards, or with perimeter shooting and backcourt quickness. In their first two conference wins, against Minnesota and Northwestern, the Spartans dominated on the glass, with plus-19 margins against the Gophers and the Wildcats. In tonight’s game against Ohio State, MSU had a modest rebounding edge of plus-8 (36-28), but the Spartans’ perimeter shooting rose to the forefront instead.

Any championship team has to be able to win while using different styles of play. Based on this victory over a Buckeye squad that presented imposing size and length near the basket, it has to be good for coach Izzo to know that his team can win on the perimeter, and not just in the paint. The ability to display versatility will serve Michigan State well as the Big Ten season continues.

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