Joiner’s Career High Guides Spartans to Road Win Over Rutgers Monday

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Freshman guard Moira Joiner earned her first collegiate 20-point game, leading the Michigan State women's basketball team to a 66-55 win over Rutgers at the RAC on Monday night.

The Spartans have now won three-straight games and improve to 11-7 overall and 4-3 in league contests. Rutgers falls to 15-3 overall and 5-2 in Big Ten action.

Michigan State has had a 20-point scorer for three-straight games now as sophomore guard Nia Clouden had reach the 20-point mark for two-straight contests. Joiner's previous career high was 15 on the road against Penn State on Jan. 9. She had now reached double figures three times this season. Clouden ended the game with 11 points to go along with six assists and five rebounds, while senior Taryn McCutcheon added 10 points. Sophomore forward Kayla Belles led all players with a career-high 13 rebounds, as MSU out-rebounded Rutgers 47-26.

Behind Joiner going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc, the Spartans ended the game 9-for-19 from long range.

Rutgers was led once again by Arelle Guirantes, who scored a game-high 28 points. She is tied for the league led in scoring with Kamaria McDaniel from Penn State.

Both teams came out hot in the first quarter, but behind a pair of treys MSU took an early 13-10 lead at the first media timeout. Redshirt-junior forward Mardrekia Cook followed with a trey to put the Spartans up 16-10 with under three remaining in the first quarter. The Spartans shot 47 percent in the first quarter to take 21-14 lead into the second period.

Guirantes hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start the second quarter to cut the MSU lead to 21-20 to start the period. The Spartans responded with six-straight points to re-take the second-quarter advantage 27-20.A pair of Ayrault free throws gave MSU its first double-digit lead of the game, 32-22 with under five minutes left in the half. Michigan State took a 38-27 lead into half time behind the strength of six Spartans with at least five points.

In the third quarter, Guirantes really caught fire scoring 16 of her 28 points. A pair of Guirantes free throws made it a 48-45 lead with under two minutes remaining in the period. Joiner hit a layup to put MSU back up by five with 1:29 left. Despite being out-scored 22-13 in the third period, Michigan State held onto a 51-49 advantage, heading into the final 10 minutes.

Rutgers tied the score with a Khadaizha Sanders layup and took the lead, 53-51 with a Guirantes bucket with 8:24 left in the game. A 9-0 run led by four-straight from Clouden put the Spartans back up 60-53. Sanders stopped a six minute Scarlet Knight scoring drought. The Spartans used a 13-2 run over 6:21 to help seal the win.

The Spartans remain at home to host another team tied for first in the league, Northwestern, on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m.

Michigan State Notes vs. Rutgers

• Michigan State won its third-straight game in improving to 11-7 overall and 4-3 in Big Ten action ... MSU also snapped a six-game losing streak in games away from home, including four-straight true road games.

• The Spartan defense stymied Rutgers to just 55 points, marking the MSU defense's fewest points allowed in a non-home game, topping the previous low of 58 in a 58-56 loss vs. LSU on Nov. 29 at the Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas.

• MSU held Rutgers to its lowest scoring output in Big Ten play and only its second-lowest of the season behind 46 points in a 46-43 win vs. Georgia Tech on Nov. 30 in Bimini, Bahamas ... the Spartans' 11-point win over the Scarlet Knights' was Rutgers' largest defeat of the season, as their previous two losses were six in a 64-58 loss at LSU on Nov. 24 and 10 in a 66-56 loss to Indiana on Dec. 30, which is also Rutgers' only previous home loss before Monday's 66-55 victory for MSU.

• Freshman guard Moira Joiner netted a career-high 20 points, becoming MSU's third different player to post 20+ points, joining sophomore guard Nia Clouden (six 20-point games) and senior guard Taryn McCutcheon (one 20-point games).

• Joiner's 20 points is also her first time leading MSU in scoring, becoming the sixth different Spartan to top the team in the points category this season ... it is also Joiner's third game in double-figures, topping her previous career-high of 15 points at Penn State (1/9/20) and joining her 13 points vs. Nebraska (12/31/19) ... Joiner has now netted 50 points in the last four games (12.5 ppg) as part of 62 points (10.3 ppg) in the last six games.

• Joiner also netted a career-high five 3-pointers, topping her previous high of three triples, done twice, last at Penn State (1/9/20) ... it was her fourth-straight game with multiple treys, including two games in the last four outings with three triples, as part of her fifth overall game with multi-treys, all coming in the last six games.

• Clouden netted 14 points for her fourth-straight game in double-digits as part of 16th on the season in 18 games ... Clouden also dished out six assists, nearly matching Rutgers' team-total of seven helpers ... the six assists by Clouden is her fourth game in a row with five or more helpers as part of the eighth game this season with five or more assists.

• Clouden now has 70 assists on the season and exactly 200 for her career, closing in on MSU's career assists list ... Clouden's current 3.9 assists per game for her career is 10th on MSU's career assists per game list.

• Sophomore forward Kayla Belles pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds, topping her only other double-digit rebounding total of 11 vs. Hartford (11/24/19) ... Belles added seven points Monday, for her fourth-consecutive game with 5+ rebounds, along with fifth in the last six games as part of the seventh time on the season ... Belles now has 56 points (9.3 ppg), 42 rebounds (7.0 rpg) and 14 blocks (2.3 bpg) over the last six games.

• During its current three-game win streak, the Spartan defense has held the opposition to under 70 points in all three games, including under 60 in two of the three outings ... on the season, MSU has kept the opposition to 60 points or less in nine games.

• MSU had a dominating 47-26 rebounding advantage against Rutgers, marking the Spartans' second-highest rebounding output in Big Ten play behind the 53 boards vs. Nebraska (12/31/19) ... the +11 rebounding margin was also the second-highest during Big Ten action behind +18 vs. Nebraska (53-35, 12/31/19).

• Monday's starting lineup of senior guard Taryn McCutcheon, senior forward Nia Hollie, sophomore forward Kayla Belles, sophomore guard Nia Clouden and freshman guard Moria Joiner, was Michigan State's fourth-straight game with that starting five as part of the Spartans' eighth different starting lineup of the season.

• Michigan State is now 11-1 this season when leading with five minutes to go, with the only loss coming at Florida State ... MSU has won 204 of its last 217 games (.940) when leading with five minutes left, including 154 of the last 169 (.911) ... under head coach Suzy Merchant, MSU is now 239-19 (.926) when holding a lead with five minutes to play.

• Senior guard Taryn McCutcheon notched 10 points for her 13th double-figure scoring outing of the season, along with dishing out two assists ... McCutcheon now has 1,083 points, passing Jamie Wesley (1994-98) with 1,075 points for No. 25 on MSU's career scoring list, and closing in on Bella Engen (1994-98) at No. 24 with 1,088 points

• McCutcheon's two assists gives her 528 for her career, continuing to close the gap on her current assistant coach Kristin Haynie (2001-05), who holds the school record with 574 assists.

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Team Stats

Moira Joiner

Nia Clouden

Taryn McCutcheon

Julia Ayrault

Players Mentioned

Kayla Belles

Nia Clouden

Mardrekia Cook

Nia Hollie

Moira Joiner

Taryn McCutcheon