Michigan State University Athletics
Spartans Open Italy Trip With 98-54 Victory
8/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 25, 2015
MSU opened its four-game trip in Italy with a 98-54 victory over Basket Fiorentina, the new professional team in Florence. The Spartans shot .576 from the field in the victory. Bryn Forbes led MSU with 18 points and Denzel Valentine added 16.
"All in all, I thought we shot it really well," said head coach Tom Izzo. "(Denzel) Valentine and (Bryn) Forbes were great. I thought (Gavin) Schilling played better the second half. We got something out of a lot of different guys. There were a lot of positives, but we have to keep in mind that was a club team, and now we will play three national teams. It's going to be a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot different."
With the score tied at 2, MSU opened its first cushion with a 9-0 run, as Marvin Clark Jr., scored six of MSU's first 11 points. Fiorentina narrowed MSU's lead to 17-14 late in the quarter, but the Spartans ended the first on an 8-0 run. By halftime, Michigan State had pushed its lead out to 14 points at 47-33, as all 14 available players saw action in the first half.
"They ran some good stuff early and gave us a few problems," Izzo said. "It's hard to play 14 guys, and yet we tried to do that. I think we got a lot out of it. I think we played better the second half. We played four freshmen and new guys at one time. That wasn't healthy, but I think they got some experience."
The Spartans put the game away early in the second half, outscoring the home team, 13-4 in the first 3:38, as they hit three of their first four 3-point attempts to open the half. At the end of three quarters, MSU held a 70-47 lead, as Valentine scored 10 points in the quarter.
Michigan State continued to play hard to the very end, holding a 28-7 advantage in the fourth quarter. Forbes hit two 3-pointers in the quarter and Schilling had six of his 12 points in the quarter.
"I thought we were locked in," said Izzo. "The only thing we did wrong was when we made some turnovers. We made a lot of free throws tonight, which is encouraging. We shot the ball well from three. Defensively I thought we were pretty good. We took some chances. Some things we haven't covered yet, that you forget to cover and all of a sudden there were a couple plays that they ran that created some problems for us. We made some adjustments at halftime. I was really pleased but I'm trying to keep it in perspective."
Tum Tum Nairn Jr. led MSU with eight assists, while Valentine added seven. As a team, MSU had 25 assists on 38 made field goals. Deyonta Davis led the Spartans with eight rebounds and Clark added seven. Five Spartans scored in double figures. Joining Forbes (18), Valentine (16) and Schilling (12) were Clark (14) and Davis (10). MSU shot .471 from 3-point range (8-17) and .778 from the foul line (14-18).
"We tried to go in with about four different lineups, that we wanted to make sure who played well together," Izzo explained. "We did that - some were positive, some were negative. You put Matt McQuaid in a tough position and play him at the point most of the game, and he's never played there in his life. I thought he was adequate. Kyle (Ahrens) struggled a little bit at times. DD (Deyonta Davis) was pretty good at times. But all three of them, for freshmen, being in a foreign country for their first game, I was pretty pleased with it."
