ANN ARBOR, Mich. — This wasn’t a typical Michigan-Michigan State basketball game.
The emotions. The atmosphere. The pregame sights and sounds. It was all unlike any previous meeting between the fierce rivals.
In the Spartans’ first game since three Michigan State students were killed and five others were critically wounded in a campus shooting, the Wolverines used a strong finish and closed the game on a 12-0 run to pull out an 84-72 win on Saturday at Crisler Center.
Dug McDaniel finished with 18 points and Kobe Bufkin scored 17, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:54 remaining, for Michigan (15-12, 9-7 Big Ten), which ended a two-game slide. Hunter Dickinson added 14 points, while Jett Howard, who exited in the second half with a right ankle injury, and Joey Baker scored 10 each.
Joey Hauser scored 20, Malik Hall 14 and Tyson Walker 11 for Michigan State (16-10, 8-7), which missed 11 of its final 13 shots over the last eight minutes.
Michigan’s players wore “Michigan basketball stands with MSU” shirts and Michigan State wore “Spartan Strong” shirts to honor the victims from Monday’s shooting, which led to the Spartans’ home game against Minnesota on Wednesday being postponed.
During a pregame moment of silence, Crisler Center was lit up green and the Maize Rage student section displayed a “Spartan Strong” flag. The Michigan band also played Michigan State’s alma mater before the national anthem.
Once the game tipped off, a sense of normalcy returned with the teams dialed in and going at it from start to finish. Following a first half which Michigan State led by three at the break, the second half was tightly contested.
Michigan pulled within one two times early after the break. But both times the Spartans responded. Jaden Akins followed a dunk by Dickinson to make it a four-point game. AJ Hoggard followed a 3-pointer by Will Tschetter with a layup to make it 44-41 at the 17:01 mark.
Michigan State, though, couldn’t pull away as Michigan kept pushing. Howard hit a mid-range jumper to knot it at 46 with 14:11 to play, but he rolled his right ankle when he landed on Hauser’s foot and had to be helped off the floor.
The Wolverines tied it three more times, the last on two free throws from McDaniel to even it at 54 at the 10:53 mark. But once again, the Spartans answered to regain the lead. Mady Sissoko threw down a two-handed jam. Akins scored in the paint. Hoggard hit a floater in the lane.
During one big swing, Tarris Reed Jr. missed the front end of a one-and-one, Hauser drilled a 3-pointer on the other end and Michigan State stretched its lead to 63-57 with 8:23 remaining.
But just when Michigan State started to create separation, Michigan fought back and finally got over the hump with a 10-2 run. Two offensive rebounds and put-backs from Reed, including one that resulted in a three-point play, tied it before two free throws from Dickinson gave Michigan a 67-65 edge with 5:20 to play.
That set the stage for a finish in which Michigan made one play after another down the stretch. After Michigan State knotted it on second-chance layup by Hauser, Dickinson quickly broke the tie with a spin and finish at rim for a 69-67 lead. After Hauser tied it again on two free throws, the Wolverines quickly answered again with a three-point play from Reed to make it 72-69 with 2:55 to play.
Then after the Spartans tied it at 72 on 3-pointer from Walker, Bufkin answered with a 3-pointer as the Wolverines scored the final 12 points. Reed blocked a shot by Hauser at the rim and Dickinson canned a 3-pointer to give Michigan a 78-72 lead with 1:07 left.
From there, McDaniel, Baker and Bufkin combined to make six free throws in the final 48 seconds as Michigan split the home-and-home series with Michigan State for the fourth season in a row.
The contest got off to a high-scoring start, which was a 180-degree change from the low-scoring battle in East Lansing on Jan. 7. McDaniel scored Michigan’s first seven points, highlighted by a corner 3-pointer and steal that he turned into a fast-break layup. Michigan State made seven of its first eight shots behind Hauser, who scored seven early points of his own.
The teams traded baskets and the lead over the first 10 minutes before Michigan blinked first. Hauser capped a 7-0 burst with a 3-pointer following a steal from Akins to give Michigan State a 24-18 advantage with 9:55 left in the first half.
The Spartans widened the margin during a 9-2 stretch when the Wolverines turned it over twice and had a shot go off the side of the backboard. Hall keyed the spurt with a baseline jumper and 3-pointer to make it 33-25 at the 3:59 mark.
Michigan returned the favor and took advantage of a pair of Michigan State turnovers with a 3-pointer from Bufkin and three-point play from Dickinson to make it a one-possession game, 36-33, at the break.
