EAST LANSING — It was the perfect time for Tom Izzo’s frustration with a no-call to boil over, even though he felt like he “didn’t get my money’s worth.”
He really did, though, in the end. Michigan State basketball rode the energy and momentum after Izzo’s technical foul awakened both his team and his point guard.
Jeremy Fears Jr., held scoreless in the first half, had 13 of his 15 second-half points after that as the 13th-ranked Spartans rallied from as many as eight points down to notch a 76-66 victory over Northwestern on Thursday, Jan. 8.
“A little bit of coach’s technical, and a little bit of us,” said Fears, who finished 4-for-11 shooting but 7-for-7 at the free-throw line with five assists. “We knew we had to pick it up. We knew that we couldn’t win this game with turning the ball over, first of all, and then getting stops. (The Wildcats) were scoring every other possession, so we had to somehow string some stops together and put ourselves in position to tie the game and take the lead and keep the lead.”
Carson Cooper scored a career-high 18 points on 6-for-6 shooting with nine rebounds, while Jaxon Kohler added 15 points and eight boards to offset committing six of his team’s 15 turnovers.
MSU (14-2, 4-1 Big Ten) dominated the boards for a 42-25 rebounding edge. The Spartans’ second-half defense smothered Northwestern (8-7, 0-4), holding the Wildcats to 2-for-12 from 3-point range and 8-for-28 overall after halftime.
Nick Martinelli had a game-high 28 points on 8-for-11 shooting, the only Northwestern player scoring in double digits as the rest of his teammates combined to go 14-for-47 (29.8%). Jayden Reid added eight points and eight assists but was 3-for-14 from the field.
“I give credit to them, but I give credit to us,” Izzo said. “Because when you aren’t at your best and you are out of it − I mean, both mentally and physically a little bit − we found a way to win.”
Turning point
When Fears picked up his second foul with 15:05 to go in the first half, that complicated Izzo’s juggling of an already tenuous position.
Divine Ugochukwu, who started again at shooting guard, replaced Fears at point for the next 5:43 before needing a break. Denham Wojcik replaced Ugochukwu at 9:22 and ran the offense for 3:06, keeping things steady and delivering a quick-whip pass to Jordan Scott for what turned into a four-point play and a third foul on Northwestern’s Arrinten Page with 8:35 to go in the half.
Wojcik went back to the bench for the remainder of the half with 6:16 to play, with both Fears and Ugochukwu returning. But the Spartans found little to no flow, other than a Fears-to-Cooper alley-oop that gave them a 28-24 lead with 5:05 left.
MSU went scoreless the rest of the half and committed three of its eight first-half turnovers in the final 2:34. Northwestern, which had 11 points off the Spartans’ giveaways, closed on an 11-0 run. And with Fears sitting the final 48.2 seconds, Ugochukwu had the ball stripped near midcourt, with Reid racing to a layup with 4 seconds to go to send the Wildcats into halftime with a 35-28 lead.
“We’d been struggling,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “Coming in, we really challenged our guys with our physicality and toughness and fight. It’s almost like there’s no better place to try and play than to come in here, because all those things are gonna be tested at the highest level.”
Fears went 0-for-4 and missed a wide-open 3-pointer while dishing out just one assist in the first 20 minutes with two fouls, both of them blocking calls on defense under Northwestern’s basket. Ugochukwu went 1-for-2 on free throws and had four assists, while Wojcik missed his only attempt with the shot clock about to expire.
Cooper almost singlehandedly kept MSU in the game with 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting, including back-to-back driving layups down the right side of the lane. Kohler had five points and four rebounds but committed four turnovers with bad passes as the Wildcats put constant double-team pressure on him defensively.
Northwestern was the aggressor early and throughout the half with 10 fouls to MSU’s four, and the Spartans compounded that by going just 6-for-11 at the free-throw line. The Wildcats got 11 points from Martinelli and nine from Kropp, owning an 18-12 scoring advantage in the paint despite Cooper and Kohler carrying MSU.
“Just don’t put myself in that position, first of all,” said Fears, who did not commit a foul in the second half. “The first half was a little frustrating. We didn’t do our job, we had a lot of turnovers, we missed a lot of free throws. So it was just a sloppy first half.”
Taking control
Fears remained out of sorts after halftime, and the offense remained mired in the muck. A couple energy rebounds by Kur Teng, along with a 3-pointer, and a Kohler turnaround jumper from the right block had MSU within three at 41-38 about 5½ minutes into the final period.
However, Fears was in the middle of the momentum-infusing moment that righted the Spartans. Knocked to the ground on a hard screen by the Wildcats’ Angelo Ciaravino, with no foul called, he sat on the ground as play continued. When Izzo saw the replay during the ensuing stoppage, he barked at the refs and was whistled for a technical foul with 13:49 to go. Martinelli hit both free throws, and a Page layup made it a four-point possession and a 45-38 Northwestern lead.
That’s when everything flipped for the Spartans.
Cam Ward quickly drove at the other end for a layup, then delivered a three-point play on a putback bucket to cut it back to a two-point deficit. Kohler drilled his second 3-pointer of the game and Fears dropped a critical runner just before the shot clock expired to cap a 10-0 run with 10:27 left. MSU never trailed again.
And Fears was a major reason. The third-year sophomore made 3 of 5 shots from the floor and all of seven his free-throw attempts after running into Ciaravino, three of those at the line coming after the 6-6 Northwestern sophomore fouled Fears on a 3-point attempt with 7:30 remaining.
“When someone steals your lunch and you’re on the playground, you better get after it,” Izzo said of the initial Fears-Ciaravino contact. “I thought [Fears] got his lunch stolen a little bit there.”
Meantime, the defensive intensity continued to escalate. Teng and Ward making more hustle plays, Scott joining them in using the length to pester and smother the Wildcats. Northwestern was 5-for-19 and missed all eight of its 3-point attempts as the Spartans built their lead to 10 thanks to five free throws from Fears and another driving layup to beat the shot clock, a high-banker that made it 62-52 with 4:26 left.
The Wildcats wouldn’t go away, with Martinelli hitting a 3-pointer and two Reid free throws getting them back within two. But another Fears driving layup, followed by a Fears-to-Teng-to-Coen Carr sequence for a dunk with 1:11 left, sealed the win as the defense ratcheted up in the closing stretch.
“It’s kind of good that (last Friday’s loss at) Nebraska happened and then we had two quick turnarounds,” Cooper said. “So in a way, the schedule was good. It kind of forced us to put it away and move on. We had a good team win over USC. And then today, we kind of got tested a little bit, and we were resilient late in the game.”
Carr added eight points and six rebounds, Ward had seven boards and seven points and Teng had six points and six rebounds.
What’s next for MSU
The Spartans close their three-game homestand ahead of a West Coast trip with a visit from Indiana on Tuesday (7 p.m., Peacock). The Hoosiers (12-3, 3-1), who have won four straight with league wins over Washington and at Maryland the past week, host No. 11 Nebraska at noon Saturday before the quick-turn trip to Breslin. MSU has lost three of its last four against IU, including a 71-67 home defeat in last season’s lone meeting. The Spartans make a return trip to Bloomington on March 1.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Big 3 deliver for Michigan State basketball in win over Northwestern
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
