Four Spartans In Double Figures As Michigan State Stops Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Four Spartans reached double figures as the Michigan State women's basketball team earned a wire-to-wire win over Penn State, 78-65, Saturday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Michigan State improves to 11-5 overall and 6-5 in Big Ten action. Penn State falls to 8-9 overall and 5-8 in league play.

For the 13th time this season, junior guard Nia Clouden led the team in scoring with a well-balanced scoresheet. She scored 17 points, along with seven rebounds, two assists one block and one steal. Returning to her former school, senior forward Alisia Smith added 10 points, while sophomore forward Julia Ayrault scored 13. Sophomore Alyza Winston drained three treys to add 11 points.

Penn State's Johnasia Cash had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

The Spartans jumped out to an early 6-0 lead with back-to-back threes by Moira Joiner and Clouden. Bench points from Taiyier Parks and Mardrekia Cook helped push the Michigan State advantage to 11-2, leading to a PSU timeout with 3:58 remaining in the first quarter. The Spartans drained four 3-pointers in the first quarter to lead 22-11 after the first 10 minutes.

Michigan State scored the first 13 points of the second quarter, taking a 35-11 lead. Clouden scored eight-straight points in the second quarter, as Michigan State kept its foot on the gas. By the end of the first half, Clouden had 13 points, while Winston added 11.

It was the Lady Lions that came out hot in the third quarter, starting the second half 4-for-5 from the field. After MSU took as big a lead as 25 points, PSU was able to trim it down to 16. Michigan State used a 7-0 to re-establish its lead 63-41 at the end of the period. The Lady Lions refused to go away as both team scored 17 points in the third stanza.

In the fourth quarter, Penn State would not go away without a fight, using an 10-0 run to cut the lead to 70-57 with under five minutes left in the game. Michigan State made good use of its bench as all 12 players that dressed played.

Michigan State remains on the road to take on in-state rival No. 12 Michigan on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 4:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Post-Game Notes vs. Penn State

• For the third-straight game, MSU's starting five was junior guard Nia Clouden, junior guard Janai Crooms, sophomore guard/forward Julia Ayrault, sophomore guard Moira Joiner and junior forward Alisia Smith ... Saturday marked the third game this season with that starting five and is the fifth different starting lineup for the Spartans.

• Smith transferred from Penn State to Michigan State during the offseason, made her sixth start in a row, and played in her 10th Spartan game.

• Clouden continues to be the only Spartan to have started all 16 games this season ... Clouden started for the 79th time in her career in playing in her 79th career game.

• Crooms also made the sixth consecutive start of her Spartan career, as she transferred to MSU from Ohio State in the offseason ... Crooms played in her 14th game in a Green & White jersey Saturday.

• Ayrault made her 13th career start, all coming this season, and Saturday was her 44th career game played.

• Joiner started for the third game in a row, after prior to the Illinois game (2/4/20), had not started since game three, 12/2/20 at Minnesota, and had started the first three games of the season ... Saturday was Joiner's sixth start of the season and her 31st career start, as well as her 45th career game played.

• Redshirt-senior Mardrekia Cook played in her 99th career game on Saturday, just one away from her 100th game.

• Four Spartans scored in double-figures, marking the sixth time this season of having four players with 10+ points, as MSU improved to 5-1 with four players in double-figures ... a total of 12 Spartans played Saturday with nine scoring.

• Junior guard Nia Clouden led the way with a game-high 17 points, as she continues her streak of tallying double-digits in all 16 games this season ... the 16 double-figure scoring outings is part of tallying 10+ points in 26-straight games in her career, including netting double-digits in 43 of her last 46 games, doing so in all but three games a year ago ... for her well-decorated Spartan career, Clouden has now scored in double-figures in 66 of 79 career games played ... with a team-high 17 points Saturday, Clouden has topped the Green & White in the scoring column in 13 of the 16 games this season, as well as a total of 35 times for her career.

• The 17 points Saturday gives Clouden 1,138 points, holding at No. 23 on MSU's career scoring list, but closing in on the No. 22 spot, held by Julie Polakowski (1982-86) with 1,143 points.

• Clouden pulled down a team-high and season-best seven rebounds ... Saturday was the first game this season that Clouden led MSU in rebounding and the fifth time in her career.

• Ayrault tallied 13 points Saturday, her first double-digit outing in the last seven games since posting 17 points vs. Maryland (1/7/21) ... the 13 points was Ayrault's seventh double-figure scoring outing this season and 12th of her career.

• Sophomore guard Alyza Winston led the Spartan bench with 11 points, marking her first double-figure game in the last six contests, last doing so with 10 points vs. Nebraska (1/10/21).

• Winston's 11 points off the bench helped MSU to a dominating 32-1 points off the bench advantage, MSU's largest of the season, as part of the 14th game this season that the Spartan reserves have out-scored the opposition's bench.

• Crooms dished out a game-high and new MSU career-high seven assists, topping her previous mark of six helpers that she had accomplished twice before, last doing so at Wisconsin (1/24/21).

• Smith celebrated her return to Penn State with 10 points against her former team, marking her fourth double-figure outing in the six games that she has started ... Saturday was Smith's fifth game overall this season that she netted double-figures in the 10 games she's played in.

• Michigan State's 78 points was the Spartans' 12th game this season with 70 or more points ... the Green & White have now won 157 of their last 177 games (.887) when scoring at least 70 points, and the Spartans are 175-29 (.858) under head coach Suzy Merchant when hanging at least 70 points on the scoreboard ... the Spartans are now 11-1 this season when reaching the 70-point mark with the only loss coming against Maryland on Jan. 7.

• The Spartans led 70-55 with 5:00 left in Saturday's game, as MSU has won 220 of its last 233 games (.944) when leading with five minutes left, including 170 of the last 185 ... in Coach Merchant's tenure, Michigan State is 255-19 (.931) when holding a lead with five minutes left ... this season, MSU is 11-0 when leading with five minutes remaining.

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Team Stats

Nia Clouden

Julia Ayrault

Alyza Winston

Alisia Smith

Players Mentioned

Julia Ayrault

Nia Clouden

Mardrekia Cook

Janai Crooms

Moira Joiner

Taiyier Parks

Alisia Smith

Alyza Winston