The long gauntlet the Michigan State Spartans ran to open the 2022-23 is finally over, and you could tell by the performance the Spartans had on Wednesday night.
The Spartans showed up flat, tired and looked like a team that was battered and bruised, dropping their Big Ten/ACC Challenge contest to Notre Dame in South Bend, 70-52.
The Spartans got blitzed to open the game by Notre Dame 3-pointers, and it was a storm the Spartans couldn’t weather. Before you knew it MSU was down 31-13 in the first half and they could never recover.
Cormac Ryan torched MSU in the first half, scoring 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting, almost outpacing the Spartans, as the Fighting Irish led 42-24 at the break.
Michigan State made an attempt to comeback in the second half, taking a 24-point deficit and cutting it down to 14, but that is all they could do, and Notre Dame ran away with the contest.
AJ Hoggard led the way with 15 points for Michigan State while Joey Hauser and Tyson Walker added 12 a piece.
Michigan State will be back in action on Sunday when they open up Big Ten play against Northwestern.
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