Marc Nardacci
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State fans got their appetites satisfied in more ways than one as the No. 10 Spartans defeated the No. 24 Wolfpack 81-58 to earn a victory for the Big 10 conference in a game that was part of the annual Big 10/ ACC Challenge.
MSU fans were hungry for a win in the series, as N.C. State came into the contest riding a three-game winning streak. And fans received a treat as the team topped State in convincing fashion.
Brandon Costner scored the opening jumper to give the Pack a 2-0 advantage, but it would never take the lead again as Spartan center Goran Suton scored the next eight points and went on to score all of his 16 points in the first half.
MSU held State to just 21.7 percent shooting from the field in the first half, as it took a 41-19 advantage by halftime.
“They did exactly what we thought they were going to do,” coach Sidney Lowe said. “They play physical and aggressive. I just don’t think we had the energy to match it.”
The Pack, coming off a victory in the Old Spice Classic where it beat No. 20 Villanova in the championship game, was playing its fourth game in just seven days.
The Spartans led by as many as 32 in the second half as the Pack’s defense allowed MSU to shoot 52.2 percent from the field.
“The impressive thing is that this is a team that has held everybody in the 30 [percent range] shooting,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. “They’ve done an unbelievable job defensively. We got the ball up and down the court and dug in the post.”
Senior guard Drew Neitzel led all MSU scorers with 17 points. Sophomore forward Raymar Morgan contributed 15 points, and Suton, a redshirt junior, finished the game with a double-double, pulling down 12 boards.
Freshman center J.J. Hickson came alive in the second half after scoring only five points off the bench in the first half and was one of only two State players in double figures. He earned a double-double by notching 21 points and grabbing 10 boards. Redshirt sophomore guard Farnold Degand finished with 11 points.
But Hickson’s effort was not enough to help the Pack make a comeback in the second half.
“It doesn’t matter what I did,” Hickson said. “If my team is not playing great, it’s not going to happen. It takes five people for it to happen.”
Izzo acknowledged State was “a better basketball team than the way they played tonight.”
“North Carolina State is a very good basketball team, and this will be a very good win for us,” he said. “I don’t think we should get overexcited yet because they got tired, and I think a lot of it was just fatigue.”
Degand said fatigue was not an excuse for the lopsided score and that the Pack was outplayed in every aspect of the game.
“The score dictates itself,” he said. “We didn’t play well defensively. There were a lot of things we were doing wrong. Today Michigan State was the better team.”