Michigan State basketball builds a 62-41 victory with Ohio State's bricks

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Winning ugly is better than losing pretty, Tom Izzo said earlier this week.

Michigan State basketball provided a little of both on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon outside, with some brutal stretches against Ohio State and some big runs to pull away to a harder-than-it-seemed 62-41 victory.

The Spartans (16-9, 8-6 Big Ten) closed the game on a 24-8 run over the final 11:24, and their defense held the Buckeyes to 20.7% shooting from 3-point range and 28.3% from the field.

"We found a way to win the game," Izzo said. "It wasn't the prettiest game, but we'll take the win."

Joey Hauser scored 22 points with eight rebounds and made six of nine 3-point attempts, Tyson Walker scored 10 points and Jaden Akins had a career-high nine rebounds and added eight points.

It was the fewest points allowed by the Spartans since a 101-33 win over Tennessee Tech on Nov. 18, 2018, and the fewest by a Big Ten opponent against MSU since Northwestern scored 40 in a 54-40 MSU win on Jan. 15, 2014.

"It's definitely our identity," Akins said. "We can be a good defensive team. We know if we're getting stops, then we're gonna have a chance to win games."

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MSU has another quick turnaround (and one-time prep) to host Minnesota at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Breslin Center in East Lansing.

Sean McNeil scored 10 points, Bruce Thornton had nine and Brice Sensabaugh eight for Ohio State (11-14, 3-11), which has lost six straight and 11 of its last 12. The Spartans held leading scorer Sensabaugh, McNeil and Justice Sueing to a combined 9 for 38 shooting.

"Their defense just was stifling today," Buckeyes coach Chris Holtmann said. "Certainly our offense can be blamed, for sure. But give them credit. … Our offensive frustration was significant in the first half, and it dug us too deep of a hole to really climb out of."

Bricklayers on both sides

The first half wasn’t for the faint of heart.

Baskets proved scarce. Turnovers were aplenty. The Value City Arena rims took a beating from the missed shots.

Somewhere in there, MSU’s defense had long stretches in which it looked infallible, punctuated with moments of weakness that were allayed by Ohio State putting together a miserable half of missed layups, outside shots, short jumpers and unforced giveaways.

"I thought we did a great job, we had a pretty good game plan," Hauser said. "It's kind of the way it goes. Sometimes teams don't make shots and everybody thinks you defended well, but I thought we did do a good job tonight."

The Spartans had their own issues early, with four turnovers in the first 6:27 and five missed 3-pointers until Hauser hit from the top of the key on a kickout pass from Mady Sissoko to put MSU up 9-6 with 11:21 left. Hauser hit again at 8:25 to give the Spartans the lead for good, and he was 3-for-4 on 3s in the half; the rest of his teammates were 0-for-7.

"We were so 3-point happy, we looked like an AAU team out there," Izzo quipped.

But MSU attacked inside, particularly with the Buckeyes’ Zed Key on the bench for much of the half with two fouls. Jaxon Kohler had six points in the half, including back-to-back baskets on an up-and-under layup and a shoulder-shimmy step-back jumper in the paint, then Carson Cooper scored off a Hauser dish and Akins attacked the basket for another layup to put the Spartans up 22-11 with 4:41 left.

The Spartans finished the half 12-for-30 from the field and had a 14-2 scoring edge in the paint. After starting 2-for-10, they made eight of 12 shots during a 7½-minute stretch in which they pulled away with an 18-5 run. But the Spartans went cold after Akins’ bucket, missing six straight shots until Hauser's third 3 with 1:06 to go, followed by a Sissoko dunk with 19 seconds before halftime.

The Spartans continued to benefit as OSU’s struggles hit their zenith, with 10 straight misses during a 7:17 scoring drought, ended only with a 3-pointer by Roddy Gayle Jr. with 2 seconds to go before halftime that cut MSU’s lead to 27-14. The Buckeyes went 3-for-15 from 3-point range and just 5-for-26 overall.

"We just didn't make shots," Thornton said. "It's kind of hard to beat a top team in the Big Ten if you don't make shots. … They're a great defensive team at the end of the day."

A second start

The Buckeyes made it a game, though, in the second half, opening by hitting seven of 14 shots. That included a pair of 3-pointers from McNeil, the second of which prompted Izzo to call timeout with the lead down into single digits.

Sensabaugh hit a pair of baskets to get OSU within 38-33 with 11:24 to go. But Hauser stepped up and drilled a critical 3-pointer to answer, followed by a pair of Walker jumpers and a pair of scores by Akins on back-to-back possessions, fueled by his attacking the glass on both ends.

"We jumped him about getting in there," Izzo said about Akins' rebounding. "And sure enough, he made a couple of big plays, Hauser made that one where he tipped it twice and got it. But Jaden Akins made some big plays, and then he got some defensive boards."

A.J. Hoggard’s jumper capped a 10-0 run over a five-minute span that extended MSU’s lead back to 51-35 with 5:54 to play. Then Cooper had a three-point play and Hauser drained two more 3s to extend the Spartans’ lead beyond 20 points in the final three minutes.

"There was a couple of times we had mental lapses," Walker said. "But other than that, we did a really good job of following the (scouting) report."

One of the big keys Izzo had going into the game was controlling the offensive boards. The Spartans turned 12 offensive rebounds into 12 second-chance points, and they finished with a 26-12 scoring edge in the paint. MSU finished with a 42-33 rebounding advantage overall.

"Second possessions, man," Hauser said. "It gets you more shots, it gets some shooters some more shots. ... If we can get to that level, where we're getting a fourth of our shots back, that's big time. It just helps you get more shots up, extra possessions, score more points.

"Offensive rebounding is a big part of the game, especially for winning teams."

And for the Spartans, it was their second straight grind to get a win and their third road victory of the season, with six regular-season games remaining and the push for Big Ten tournament and NCAA seeding hinging on their performance down the stretch.

"Every experience you go through is gonna help you get better," Hauser said. "We've been in close games, games where we've been down by four with two minutes ago and we pulled it out and games we've been up by four and lost. So you go through it and you take what you learn from it.

"And I think we've done a good job of using some of the stuff that we've learned through these tight games, especially these last five or six Big Ten games. We've gotten blown out in a couple of them. But we're bouncing back here and really trying to make a run."

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball builds a 62-41 win with Ohio State bricks