EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State couldn't avoid another slow start, but by the second half, the early miscues mattered little.
Behind a barrage of 3-pointers and a healthy dose of play-making from point guard A.J. Hoggard , the 10th-ranked Spartans took off in the second half to roll over Michigan, 83-67, at a packed Breslin Center on Saturday afternoon.
Freshman Max Christie scored 16 to lead Michigan State, going 3 for 4 from 3-point range, while Malik Hall had 15 points with a pair of triples and Joey Hauser added 14 with two 3-pointers as well. Hoggard finished with 11 points and a career-high 10 assists and turned the ball over only once.
The Spartans (16-4, 7-2 Big Ten) went 9 for 18 from 3-point range, just days after struggling to make much of anything in a loss to Illinois. But with the playmaking of Hoggard, things changed significantly as Michigan State overcome some early rebounding and turnover issues to pull away in the second half.
Michigan (10-8, 4-4) was on a three-game win streak and had been shooting the ball well from 3-point range, but went just 3 for 19 for the game. Hunter Dickinson did his best to keep the Wolverines in the game, scoring a game-high 25, but he got little help as Moussa Diabate and Caleb Houstan each added 11 points for the Wolverines.
Michigan came out firing early in the game, using an 8-0 run in the opening minutes to turn an 8-6 deficit into a 14-8 lead just more than five minutes into the game.
That's when Christie started heating up, hitting his first triple to pull Michigan State within 14-11. Michigan kept hammering away to Dickinson in the post, but a jumper from Christie followed by another 3-pointer and a free throw for a four-point play tied the game at 18.
Dickinson answered with four in a row for the Wolverines but another Christie triple followed by a three-point play from Hall gave Michigan State a 24-22 lead with just more than seven minutes to play in the first half.
The back and forth continued from there before Hall scored eight in a row, hitting two 3-pointers and driving for a layup to give the Spartans a 36-32 lead with 2:56 to play in the first half. Michigan State missed an opportunity to extend that lead as it turned the ball over twice in the next three possessions before Adams converted a three-point play for the Wolverines to pull within 36-35.
Tyson Walker then nailed a 3-pointer with 25 seconds to play in the half to give Michigan State a 39-35 advantage headed to the locker room, as the Spartans overcame nine turnovers and allowing Michigan to grab nine offensive rebounds. Michigan, meanwhile, was just 1 for 8 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes.
Michigan State came out of the locker room on fire as a 10-2 surge put the Spartans ahead, 49-37, thanks to a pair of drives from Hoggard before Gabe Brown scored his first points on a dunk that had the crowd at a fever pitch and the Spartans ahead, 53-38, with 13 minutes to play.
"Give Michigan State credit," Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. "In the second half it wasn't anything schematically and not taking away from coach or the coaching staff, but what they did was unique and special, and give them credit for it. They came out as the most aggressive team, the most physical team
"In the first half we were punching, fighting, clawing and scratching. In the second half we backed off and you can't have that."
The lead grew to 60-44 when Joey Hauser hit a 3-pointer, Brown scored on a drive to the hoop and then Hauser took a dish from Hoggard on the break for a layup with 9:06 left in the game.
"I think just defensively we weren't locked in all the way," Dickinson said of Michigan's second-half drop-off. "That's a theme for us in the second half. We usually don't play a full 20 minutes. We just have some mental lapses that open the game up for the other team and today was another example of that."
Michigan didn't go away, however, and chipped away, pulling within 64-53 with 6:33 to play, but Michigan State went on an 8-0 run with back-to-back triples from Brown and Hauser as the lead ballooned to 72-53 with less than five minutes to go as Michigan State cruised from that point.
