EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State knew it was in for a fight Tuesday night as Nebraska visited the Breslin Center as both teams jumped back into Big Ten play.
The Cornhuskers have played plenty of teams tough this season, taking Purdue to overtime and beating up on Iowa last week.
So it came as a relief to a packed house as Michigan State put together arguably its best half of the season in the opening 20 minutes, riding the shooting of Tyson Walker as it opened a big lead and was able to hang on in the second on its way to a 74-56 victory.
Walker scored 16 of his 21 points in the first half to lead the Spartans (10-4, 2-1 Big Ten). Joey Hauser scored 10 and grabbed 10 rebounds while freshman Jaxon Kohler scored a career-high 10 points. Mady Sissoko also grabbed 10 rebounds as Michigan State dominated on the glass, outrebounding Nebraska 46-29.
Derrick Walker Jr. scored 15 to lead Nebraska (8-7, 1-3) while Sam Griesel and Wilhelm Breidenbach each chipped in 10 for the Cornhuskers.
Walker was the catalyst early. With Michigan State holding a slim three-point lead roughly eight minutes into the game, Walker and the offense started to things rolling. A quick 10-0 surge that began with a Pierre Brooks 3-pointer was capped off by seven straight points from Walker, who hit a pair of mid-range jumpers before burying a deep triple to give the Spartans a 26-13 lead, capping an 8-for-9 shooting stretch by the Spartans.
The Cornhuskers responded with four in a row but were shut out over the final 6:34 of the half as Michigan State took over.
Hauser’s 3-pointer from the corner started the final 13-0 to close the half as he and Mady Sissoko added put-backs while Akins hit a jumper, Tre Holloman scored in the lane and Walker capped things with another baseline jumper with a little more than a minute to play to give Michigan State a 39-17 lead at halftime.
Nebraska was the aggressor to open the second half, pulling within 39-23 as Michigan State came up empty on its first five possessions.
A runner from A.J. Hoggard got the Spartans on track as things were going back and forth as Michigan State got the lead back to 20 when Brooks hit a 3-pointer from the corner to make it 53-33 with 13:15 to play.
But the Huskers weren’t going away, playing far better than they did in the first half. After the Brooks triple, Nebraska scored 11 while Michigan State managed just a Hauser 3-pointer as the Huskers pulled within 56-44 with 9:22 to play on a three-point play from Breidenbach.
Kohler then scored back-to-back buckets as the Spartans to spark a 10-0 surge that allowed Michigan State to regain control of the game as Malik Hall scored five in a row and Walker nailed another 3-pointer to give the Spartans a 68-46 lead with 4:15 to play.
There were no more comebacks from that point as the teams cleared the benches in the final minutes with the Spartans looking ahead to Saturday’s matchup with Michigan.
