No. 7-seeded Spartan Women’s Basketball Knocks Off No. 2-seeded Indiana, 69-61

INDIANAPOLIS - Trailing by as many as 11 points, the No. 7-seeded Spartan women's basketball team upset No. 2-seeded Indiana, 69-61 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament Thursday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

With the win, Michigan State has now won three-straight games and improves to 15-7 overall, while Indiana falls to 18-5. The Spartans now move to 3-2 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament against the Hoosiers.

This is the first time that MSU had reached the semifinals of the B1G Tournament since the 2017 season when MSU fell to Maryland, 100-89.

After three-straight games scoring in single digits, junior guard Nia Clouden has scored 48 points in the last two games. Against the Hoosiers, she scored a game-high 30 points, just one shy of the school record of 31 points in the Big Ten Tournament set by Aerial Powers, Tori Jankoska and Liz Shimek. For the third-straight game, sophomore guard Alyza Winston was in double figures adding 13 points.

Turnovers plagued the Spartans in the first quarter, as Indiana jumped out to a 15-9 lead. After the first 10 minutes of action, Michigan State had seven turnovers. Despite the slow start, the Spartans only trailed the Hoosiers, 16-11.

With six minutes left in the second quarter, Indiana opened up its first double-digit lead, 25-15. The Spartans crawled back in to it making it a 26-20 game after an Alisia Smith jumper. Grace Berger scored eight points in the second period alone as the Hoosiers took as big a lead as 11 points, but MSU only trailed 34-26 at the break.

Clouden started the second half with an old-fashioned three to get the Spartans going. Michigan State scored the first nine of the half as MSU took its first lead since the first quarter, 35-34. The Spartans continued to heat up scoring 12 of the first 16 of the third period, paced by Clouden who scored 15 in the quarter. The remainder of the quarter was a back and forth battle.

The Spartans used an 8-0 run in the fourth quarter to take an eight-point advantage, 55-48 with just under seven minutes left in the game. After taking a nine-point lead Alsi Patberg scored four-straight for IU, leading to a MSU timeout with 4:14 remaining. With 1:55 remaining, junior guard Tory Ozment nailed a critical trey to give the Spartans a seven-point advantage. Down the stretch, MSU was clutch from the charity stripe, going 9-for-12 to seal the upset.

Michigan State will now face No. 6-seeded Iowa. The game will follow the opener between No. 1-seeded Maryland and No. 5-seeded Northwestern which tips at 2 p.m.

Post-Game Notes vs. Indiana

• Michigan State continues its late-season resurgence with its third straight win down the stretch, and its first victory this season against a ranked opponent (Indiana was ranked No. 9 in both major national polls this week), breaking through against the Top 25 after some very close calls vs. ranked teams earlier this year (five games decided by 12 points or fewer). The Spartans are the 11th different Big Ten team to earn a Top 25 win this year.
• Michigan State posts its first win over a top-10 opponent since Jan. 17, 2019, when it defeated No. 9/9 Maryland, 77-60 in East Lansing.
• One day after rallying from a nine-point deficit to oust Penn State in the second round, Michigan State did even better, with a season-high 11-point comeback to defeat Indiana. The Spartans trailed the Hoosiers, 34-23, with 58 seconds left in the second quarter, before embarking on a 12-0 run (seven by Nia Clouden) that crossed halftime and gave MSU its first lead since 2-0 when Clouden's jumper fell at the 7:46 mark of the third quarter (35-34) — from there, the Spartans never trailed by more than one point and led by as many as nine during the final 17-plus minutes of the game.
• MSU continues its success against Indiana at the Big Ten Tournament, improving to 3-1 all-time against the Hoosiers in the postseason.
• The Spartans earn their first win against Indiana since Feb. 11, 2019 (a 77-61 victory in East Lansing).
• Michigan State advances to its 14th Big Ten Tournament semifinal and first since a stretch of 11 semifinals in a 14-year span from 2004-17. The Spartans are 14-8 (.636) all-time in Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal games.
• Junior guard Nia Clouden became the fourth Michigan State player to score 30 points in a Big Ten Tournament game and the first since Tori Jankoska's record-tying 31 points against Maryland on March 4, 2017. Two other Spartans also scored 31 in a tournament game — Liz Shimek vs. Iowa on March 3, 2006, and Aerial Powers vs. Ohio State on March 5, 2016.
• Clouden posted her third 30-point game this season, and all three have come against Top 25 opponents. She scored a career-high 34 points on Feb. 16 at No. 11/11 Michigan and 32 points on Jan. 7 vs. No. 12/12 Maryland.
• Head coach Suzy Merchant moves into sole possession of sixth place on the Big Ten Tournament career coaching wins list with her 15th victory at the event, passing former Purdue coach Kristy Curry (14 wins from 1999-2006). Merchant is 15-13 (.536) all-time at the Big Ten Tournament since coming to MSU prior to the 2007-08 season.
• Merchant also picked up her 497th overall win and victory No. 296 at Michigan State in what was her 450th career game coached with the Spartans. She has a 26-year career record of 497-274 (.645) and a 296-154 (.658) record in 14 seasons at MSU.

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Team Stats

Nia Clouden

Alyza Winston

Alisia Smith

Mardrekia Cook

Players Mentioned

Nia Clouden

Tori Jankoska

Tory Ozment

Alisia Smith

Alyza Winston