Spartan Women’s Basketball Remains Undefeated with Win Over Northern Illinois

EAST LANSING, Mich. - An early 16-0 first-quarter run paced the Michigan State women's basketball team past Northern Illinois, 82-70, Sunday afternoon at the Breslin Center. The Spartans were able to hold off a resilient Husky squad to earn the win.

The Spartans improve to 6-0 for the first time since the 2012-13 MSU squad started the season 8-0. Michigan State won its second-straight game against a Mid-American Conference opponents after Friday's 79-70 win over Central Michigan.

Junior guard Nia Clouden fell just shy of her fourth 20-point game with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds. She also added three steals, contributing half of the Spartan thefts. Junior guard Tory Ozment added a season-high 12 points with a career-high seven assists in the win, while sophomore forward Taiyier Parks was solid on the boards, tying a career-high with 10 rebounds. Freshman Kendall Bostic was the final Spartan in double figures with 11 points off the bench.

Northern Illinois was led by 16 points from A'jah Davis.

The Huskies came out hot, jumping out to an early 8-2 advantage, before a Clouden old-fashioned three slowed down NIU. Michigan State responded with a 16-0 run to pull ahead 18-8, behind some tenacious defense. The Spartans kept the Huskies off the scoreboard for over five minutes. MSU closed out the period with a 21-4 run over the final six minutes. The tough Spartan defense forced eight turnovers in the quarter.

In the second quarter, MSU started to pull away with a 6-0 run to take a 29-15 lead. The Huskies did not go away, fighting back with a 9-0 run of their own to trim the lead to 41-31 with 1:39 left in the half. Ozment nailed a trey with time winding down in the half, as MSU entered the locker room with a 64-33 lead. Michigan State forced 12 Northern Illinois turnovers in the first half with five steals and two blocks.

Foul trouble continued to mount for the Spartans with Clouden and Winston, getting called for their fourth and third respectively in the third quarter. Northern Illinois trimmed the lead to single digits, 54-45, after a Davis free throw, before MSU was able to re-establish its double-digit advantage.

In the fourth quarter, NIU used a 7-0 run to cut the Spartan advantage to, 65-58, leading to a MSU timeout with 8:30 left in the game. Clouden and Winston took over from there to help secure the victory. The guard duo combined for 12 points in the final 10 minutes of action.

The Spartans will close out non-conference action against Oakland on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 12 p.m. Michigan State's game against Big Ten game against Ohio State on Dec. 31 has been postponed due to the Buckeyes pausing basketball activities.

Post-Game Notes vs. Northern Illinois
• MSU improved to 6-0 with Sunday's win, the Spartans' first 6-0 start to a season since the 2012-13 season when they opened 8-0.

• Michigan State and Northern Illinois met on the hardwood for just the fifth time in program history as part of the first time overall since 2007 and the first time in East Lansing since 1990, and the Spartans now lead the all-time series, 3-2 and for the first time ever in the series, a team has won back-to-back games, as prior to Sunday's victory for MSU, the teams had been on an alternating won-loss pattern ... MSU is now 2-1 vs. NIU in East Lansing, winning two in a row.

• The Spartans won their second-straight game against a MAC opponent after Friday's 79-70 win over Central Michigan.

• Michigan State's starting line-up of junior guard Nia Clouden, junior guard Tory Ozment, sophomore forward Julia Ayrault, sophomore forward Taiyier Parks and sophomore guard Alyza Winston was the Spartans' first game with that starting five.

• Ayrault and Winston made the third starts of their career, all three in the last three games ... meanwhile, Clouden made her 69th career start in playing in her 69th career game ... Ozment started for the 18th time of her career in playing her 54th game ... Parks started for the fourth time this season in the six games as part of her seventh career start, while playing in her 36th career game.

• After being down 8-2 early, MSU then went on a 16-0 run in the first quarter to take an 18-8 lead, ending the frame with a 23-12 advantage.

• Michigan State has now led at halftime in all six games, and Sunday's 13-point lead at 46-33 was the Spartans' fifth double-digit lead at intermission, joining leads of 42-22 vs. Saint Francis, 36-24 vs. Detroit Mercy, 48-38 at Minnesota and 44-28 vs. Iowa.

• Michigan State's 25 assists Sunday not only tied the second-most of the season, but was the Spartans' second-straight and fourth game this season in topping 20 or more helpers in the six games, joining 24 last time out vs. Central Michigan (Dec. 18), along with 25 in the season-opener vs. Saint Francis (Nov. 27), 26 vs. Detroit Mercy (Dec. 2).

• With a 39-32 rebounding advantage Sunday, MSU has out-rebounded the opposition in four of the six games.

• With 10 points in the first half alone and finishing with 18 points, Clouden posted her 17th-straight career game in double-digits dating back to last year, having posted double-figures in 33 of her last 36 games played, doing so in every game but three last season ... for her career, Clouden now has double-digits in 56 of her 69 overall games played.

• Clouden's 18 points Sunday gives her 948 career points, just 52 points away from the 1,000 career points milestone.

• Clouden also dished out seven assists, her second-highest of the season behind 10 helpers in the season-opener vs. Saint Francis and fourth game this season with six or more assists.

• Ozment netted a season-high 12 points and tied a career-high with seven assists ... the 12 points is her fourth double-figure outing of the season and 11th of her career ... the seven assists matches her career-best from Dec. 12 vs. Iowa.

• Ayrault dished out a career-high five assists and swatted a season-high three blocks, tying her career-high.

• Parks pulled down a season-high and career-best tying 10 rebounds for her second double-figure rebounding game of her career.

• Freshman forward Kendall Bostic scored in double-figures for the first time since the season-opener vs. Saint Francis with 11 points Sunday.

• Graduate senior transfer center Lauren Rewers tallied MSU career-highs of four points and four rebounds Sunday.

• Bostic's 11 points led the MSU reserves, as the Spartan bench have out-scored their counterparts in all six games, as Sunday's 26-25 advantage was the closest of the season and only the second single-digit advantage as the Green & White has had a double-figure advantage in four of the six games.

• Michigan State has scored 80 or more points in four of the six games and the topped the 70-point mark in all six games this season ... the Green & White have won 152 of their last 171 games (.889) when scoring at least 70 points, and the Spartans are 170-28 (.859) under head coach Suzy Merchant when hanging at least 70 points on the scoreboard ... Michigan State is now 6-0 this season when reaching the 70-point mark.

• MSU led NIU, 71-62, at the 5:00 mark Sunday, and the Spartans have now won 215 of their last 228 games (.943) when leading with five minutes left, including 165 of their last 180 ... In Coach Merchant's tenure, Michigan State is 250-19 (.929) when holding a lead with five minutes left ... MSU improved to 6-0 this season when leading with five minutes remaining.

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Team Stats

Nia Clouden

Tory Ozment

Kendall Bostic

Taiyier Parks

Players Mentioned

Julia Ayrault

Kendall Bostic

Nia Clouden

Tory Ozment

Taiyier Parks

Lauren Rewers

Alyza Winston