Michigan State University
Nc Asheville
Men's Hoops Tallies 51st Consecutive Home Victory
12/17/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec 17, 2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The winning coach apologized. The losing coach couldn't stop smiling.
They were fitting reactions after Michigan State sputtered, then finally spurted past North Carolina-Asheville 76-56 Monday night.
The 17th-ranked Spartans escaped with a Big Ten-record, 51st consecutive win at home. They also left with a lesson about the importance of playing hard every game, as coach Tom Izzo promised to remind them at high decibels.
"They always tell me the highs are never as high as the lows are low," Izzo said before apologizing to a supportive, sellout crowd with surprisingly few no-shows. "We just didn't do a very good job. I'm very disappointed in our play. I could go with a cliche and say we could expect that. But I don't expect anything like that."
Two days after the Spartans beat then-No. 6 Arizona to tie the home win streaks of Ohio State from 1959-63 and Indiana from 1991-95, the Spartans (7-3) were lackadaisical from start to finish.
Izzo's team allowed open shots all night, surrendered 15 offensive rebounds to the Bulldogs (1-9) and needed an 11-1 spurt over the final three minutes to pad a 10-point lead.
Robby Joyner, Joseph Barber and Brandon Carter each had 11 points for the Bulldogs, who lost their fourth straight.
"I'm real proud of our team," Bulldogs coach Eddie Biedenbach said. "This could be the turning point in our season. They had less energy than I'd seen in other games. But I'd like to credit UNC-Asheville for some of that. Our changing defenses made them think a little bit."
Izzo thought his team was ready to play another good game but took full responsibility for the sluggish showing.
"I think I aided in this by giving our guys too much credit," Izzo said. "A win over Arizona means nothing if you lose a game you're supposed to win. There haven't been games like this one during the streak. But there have been a few."
Adam Ballinger had 17 points for the Spartans but took his share of the blame for struggling against a team that had been outscored by an average of 15.3 points per game this season.
"If we play this way Wednesday (against Oakland), it'll probably be difficult to come out with a win," Ballinger said. "We didn't come out with the intensity we needed in the first half. And that starts with me. I take the blame for that."
Kelvin Torbert had 13 points for Michigan State, which outshot the Bulldogs 46.4 percent to 32.8 percent from the field but had just a 41-35 rebound advantage.
Marcus Taylor and Chris Hill each had 12 points for the Spartans, while Alan Anderson added 11 points and forward Aloysius Anagonye had 11 rebounds.
