Monday, November 4
East Lansing, Mich.
7 PM
Michigan State University
1-0,0-0Big Ten
81
vs
57
Monmouth
0-1,0-0CAA
1
2
F
Monmouth
27
30
57
Michigan St.
38
43
81
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell
Akins Ties Career High in Points (23) as Michigan State Beats Monmouth, 81-57, in Season Opener
11/4/2024 9:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball
East Lansing, Mich. – Senior guard Jaden Akins tied his career-high with 23 points and Michigan State pulled away in the second half, beating Monmouth, 81-57, in the season opener for both schools on Monday night at the Breslin Center.
Akins scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half, hitting 8-of-12 shots from the floor and 6-of-7 from the free the line. He added a team-high nine rebounds, handed out five assists and had two blocks and two steals.
Freshman guard Jase Richardson scored 10 points and had four assists off the bench, while senior center Szymon Zapala finished with nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks.
Recap
Next
Michigan State plays its second home game of the season on Thursday, Nov. 7, hosting Niagara at the Breslin Center. The game tips off at 8 p.m. and will air live on BTN, with Kevin Kugler and Shon Morris on the call.
Akins scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half, hitting 8-of-12 shots from the floor and 6-of-7 from the free the line. He added a team-high nine rebounds, handed out five assists and had two blocks and two steals.
Freshman guard Jase Richardson scored 10 points and had four assists off the bench, while senior center Szymon Zapala finished with nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks.
Recap
- Michigan State led by 15 points twice in the first half and went into intermission with an 11-point lead (38-27) but Monmouth scored the first five points of the second half and pulled to within six points, 38-32, after a jumper from Abdi Bashir Jr.
- The lead was still six points, 40-34, after a jumper from Bashir Jr. (17:34) before the Spartans scored six-straight points, all from Akins. The senior hit a pair of free throws, then hit 1-of-2 and after the miss, hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 46-34 (16:01).
- Monmouth would pull back to within nine points, 46-37, on a trey from Bashir on the next play but MSU's lead never dipped below 10 points the rest of the way.
- The Spartans opened their largest lead of the night, 24 points, on a 3-pointer by freshman guard Kur Teng, extending the margin to 81-57 with 1:16 left.
- Bashir Jr. hit another 3-pointer to cut the lead back to single digits, 46-37, but Akins converted a conventional three-point play and junior center Carson Cooper hit a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 14 points, 51-37, with 14:07 to play.
- The Spartans started the game off with Fears feeding Akins for an alley-oop dunk and MSU jumped out quickly, taking a 9-0 lead on a Fidler jumper at the 16:43 mark.
- Monmouth hit a pair of free throws at the 16:07 mark but the Spartans took a 17-2 lead on a layup from junior forward Jaxon Kohler at 12:53.
- Freshman guard Jase Richardson hit a layup with just over 5 minutes to play in the half to give the Spartans a 32-17 lead and a hook shot from Cooper made it 34-20.
- Michigan State, however, would hit only two field goals in the final four-plus minutes and went into the break with a 38-27 lead.
- Michigan State shot 49.2 percent from the floor (30-of-61) and hit 62.8 percent of its 2-point shots (27-of-43).
- The Spartans scored 48 points in the paint and out-scored the Hawks, 25-15, on the fast break.
- MSU received 33 points from the bench, led by 10 points from Richardson.
- MSU out-scored Monmouth, 38-27, in the first half, and 43-30 in the second stanza.
- Michigan State beat Monmouth for the first time in program history.
- The Spartans are now 5-1 all-time against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association.
- MSU Head Coach Tom Izzo now has a career record of 708-295.
- Michigan State is now 97-29 all-time in season openers and has won 40 of its last 48 games.
- Izzo is now 22-8 all-time in season openers.
- Jaden Akins tied his career-high with 23 points, previously set at home in a win over Michigan on Jan. 30, 2024.
- Akins hit a career-best 6 free throws and set a new career mark in attempts (7), while tying his career-best with 5 assists (vs. Iowa, Feb. 20, 2024).
- Akins just missed his first career-double, finishing with a team-high nine rebounds.
- Akins is averaging 10.0 rebounds in his last two season-openers, after pulling down 11 rebounds in last year's season-opener vs. James Madison (11/6/23), and is averaging 6.0 rebounds per game in season-openers for his Spartan career, with one board in the 2022-23 season-opener vs. Northern Arizona (11/7/22) and three rebounds in the 2021-22 lid-lifter vs. Kansas (11/9/21).
- Akins nine rebounds Monday ties the second-most of his career, matching nine rebounds vs. Ohio State (2/12/23).
- Freshman guard Jase Richardson came off the bench to score his first 10 points as a Spartan, netting 4-of-5 field goals and adding 2-of-2 free throws . . . Richardson also registered the first four assists, two rebounds and one steal in a Green & White uniform.
- Senior center Szymon Zapala and senior forward Frankie Fidler also made their Spartan debuts, with Zapala tallying nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks, while Fidler posted nine points, three rebounds and one assist.
- Redshirt freshman Jeremy Fears Jr. dished out a game-high eight assists and had one block in his successful return to the court after an injury-shortened 2023-24 season.
- The eight assists were the second-most of his career behind 10 vs. Stony Brook on Dec. 21, 2023) in his last game played of the 2023-24 season.
- He has four career games with five or more assists.
- Junior forward Jaxon Kohler pulled down eight rebounds, topping his entire season-high from last year, and the third-highest output on the glass of his career, behind his career-best 11 rebounds (vs. Rutgers, 1/19/23) and nine boards (vs. Northern Arizona, 11/7/22), which was also his Spartan debut in the 2022-23 season-opener.
Next
Michigan State plays its second home game of the season on Thursday, Nov. 7, hosting Niagara at the Breslin Center. The game tips off at 8 p.m. and will air live on BTN, with Kevin Kugler and Shon Morris on the call.
Team Stats
MU
MSU
FG%
.279
.492
3FG%
.296
.167
FT%
.938
.667
RB
31
48
TO
15
13
STL
7
6
Game Leaders
Pts
23
FGM
8
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Pts
10
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
9
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
C
/ Men's Basketball
G
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's BasketballG
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C
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