Michigan State University
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No. 17/19 Spartan Women Survive Battle with No. 21/25 Iowa, 68-66
12/15/2024 5:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball
MSU earns its first win against Iowa since 2020.
With the win, the Spartans improved to 10-0, which is extends their best start in program history and 1-0 in B1G action. Iowa falls to 9-2 overall and 0-1 in league play.
The victory snapped a four-game losing streak against the Hawkeyes, last winning on Dec. 12, 2020 in East Lansing.
Michigan State was led by 19 points and four rebounds from graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault. Graduate guard Nyla Hampton was clutch for MSU with 13 points, all coming in the fourth quarter. She also had four rebounds just in the final stanza. Junior forward Grace VanSlooten added 14 points and seven rebounds, adding three steals.
Iowa was led by Hannah Stuelke, who scored 18 points with eight boards.
Junior guard Theryn Hallock's first trey of the game tied the game at 9-9 at the 4:41 mark ahead of the first media time out. Michigan State forced five Hawkeye turnovers in just over four minutes, but were not able to capitalize on the scoreboard just leading 11-9. Behind six points from VanSlooten, MSU led after the first period 16-12.
The turnover bug hit the Spartans in the second half with three in a two-minute span, as Iowa re-took the lead 19-17. The Spartans went nearly three minutes without a field goal before an Ayrault 3-pointer stopped the skid, putting MSU back on top 24-23. The Hawkeyes out-scored the Spartans 21-12 in the second quarter to lead at half time 33-28.
After Iowa jumped out to a 36-28 lead, the Spartans began to battle back in the third quarter. An old-fashioned 3-pointer by VanSlooten made it a 37-34 game with 5:19 left in the third quarter. Michigan State used a 6-0 run over 52 seconds to trim the deficit to 52-49 at the end of the period. VanSlooten carried the bulk of the weight in the period with seven points, while Lucy Olsen came to life for the Hawkeyes with six points.
Iowa scored the first six points of the fourth period to re-gain control, but the Spartans weren't done fighting. Sparked by some stellar play by graduate guard Nyla Hampton, a 9-0 MSU run tied the score at 58, leading to a Iowa timeout with 6:46 remaining. The run rose to 14-0 to give MSU a 63-58 lead. The Hawkeyes went over six minutes without a field goal. Iowa got as close as 67-66 before a huge Ayrault block and an even bigger Hampton rebound sealed the win for the Spartans.
MSU will now hit the road for a pair of games before the holiday break at the West Palm Beach Classic. Michigan State will take on Montana on Thursday, Dec. 19 at 12 p.m. and will close out action against Alabama on Friday, Dec. 20 at 4:30 p.m.
Michigan State Women's Basketball Post-Game Notes
• Michigan State is 10-0 for the first time in program history, continuing to improve on its best start, topping the previous best starts of 8-0 in the 2012-13 and 2020-21 seasons, before losing their ninth game those two seasons.
• The MSU women's 10-0 start is just the fourth 10-0 start for all Michigan State basketball teams, joining three Spartan men's teams from the 1991-92, 2000-01 and 2015-16 seasons that all started 10-0.
• The Spartan women remain one of four unbeaten teams in the B1G, joining Ohio State (9-0), UCLA (9-0) and Maryland (10-0) ... Tennessee, Portland, Buffalo, Georgia Tech and LSU are the other remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division I.
• MSU won its Big Ten Conference opener, and is now 21-22 all-time in B1G openers, having won eight of their last 14 . . . Sunday was the first time that the Spartans opened league play with the Hawkeyes since 2021-22 season, and Sunday's win avenged that 88-61 loss.
• With the No. 17/19 Spartans facing the No. 21/25 Hawkeyes, Sunday also marked the first time that the ranked Spartan squad faced a ranked opponent since Jan. 7, 2021, when No. 23/24 MSU lost to No. 12/12 Maryland.
• The Spartans have won their last 15 regular-season games dating back to last year, finishing with five-straight wins in 2023-24 and opening this season 10-0 . . . the 15-game regular-season win streak overlapping last year and this season betters MSU's longest winning streak of 14 regular-season games in a row during the 2010-11 season, and is the longest win streak of any kind since a 17-game win streak in 2004-05 en route to winning a share of the Big Ten regular-season crown and the Big Ten Tournament title.
• The current 10-game win streak is MSU's longest win streak in the same season since the Spartans won 14 in a row in 2010-11.
• Iowa entered Sunday's game averaging 61.3 ppg scoring defense, and MSU's 68 points was the Hawkeyes' third-straight opponent to score more than 65 points after holding the previous four opponents below that, and both of Iowa's two losses have come in the last three games, with RV/RV Tennessee beating Iowa, 78-68, on Dec. 7, before the Hawkeyes beat in-state rival, No. 18/17 Iowa State, 75-69, last time out on Dec. 11 . . . MSU's defense held Iowa to 66 points on Sunday, which is over 10 points below the Hawkeyes' scoring offense average of 76.5 ppg coming into the match-up.
• Sunday was MSU's first win over Iowa since Dec. 12, 2020, and graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault is the lone current Spartan on the roster from that season, snapping a four-game losing skid to the Hawkeyes . . . Sunday's win cut Iowa's overall lead to 43-31 in the all-time series . . . the Spartans lead 18-16 in games played in East Lansing, winning three of the last four.
• One game after a school-record 14 blocks shots last time out vs. DePaul (12/8/24), the Spartans had five blocks on Sunday . . . MSU has swatted five or more shots in each of the last five games as part of a total of eight of the 10 games this season.
• Sunday's Spartan starting line-up of graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault, graduate guard Nyla Hampton, graduate guard Jaddan Simmons, junior forward Grace VanSlooten and senior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate was MSU's second-straight game with that starting five after debuting it last time out last week vs. DePaul . . . it is Michigan State's fifth different starting line-up of the season.
• MSU had three players score in double-figures Sunday, led by graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault with a game-high 19 points, followed by junior forward Grace VanSlooten with 14 points and graduate guard Nyla Hampton's 13 points . . . it was only the third time in 10 games that fewer than four MSU players scored in double-figures, including the second time a trio of Spartans.
• With Ayrault's 19 points and four rebounds on Sunday, the guard/forward is averaging just shy of a double-double with 19.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game over her last six games, with 116 points and 55 rebounds over that span.
• Ayrault has netted 10+ points in all nine games played this season, missing the Detroit Mercy game (12/20/24) with an injury . . . the graduate guard/forward has tallied double-digits in the last 22-straight games played as part of doing so in 33 of her last 38 games played since the start of the 2023-24 season . . . overall, she logged her 49th career game in double-figures and the Spartans improved to 38-11 when Ayrault nets 10+ points.
• With three blocks Sunday, Ayrault swatted the second-most of the season behind her top mark of four rejections vs. Cal (11/26/24), and was her third game in the last four outings with multiple blocks as part of four games total with more than one block in nine games played . . . she has registered at least one block in seven of her nine games played.
• The three blocks gives Ayrault 150 for her career, becoming just the third player in Spartan women's basketball history with 150 blocks, joining school-record holder Allyssa DeHaan's 503 from 2006-10 and Kristen Rasmussen with 194 from 19996-2000.
• Ayrault netted two 3-pointers on Sunday to register her fourth game in a row making multiple triples.
• By pulling down a team-high sharing seven rebounds, VanSlooten has snared seven or more rebounds in her last seven games played as part of doing so in eight of the nine games played.
• With three steals Sunday, VanSlooten swiped the second-most of the season behind her top mark of five steals vs. Vanderbilt (11/27/24).
• Hampton's 13 points were a season-high and only the second game this season in double-figures, joining 10 points vs. Cal (11/26/24) . . . with five made field goals Sunday, Hampton also tallied a season-best, bettering her four made field goals from the same Cal game.
• With a team-high tying three assists, Hampton has dished out three or more helpers in five of the 10 games, with four outings doing so coming in the last six games.
• Junior guard Theryn Hallock, last season's Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year, came off the bench for the second game in a row and netted eight points to lead MSU to an 18-15 bench point scoring edge.
• Junior guard Emma Shumate netted two 3-pointers, marking her fourth game this season with multiple triples . . . Sunday was Shumate's 14th career game with multiple 3-pointers, after 10 during her time at Ohio State (two in 2022-23, eight in 2023-24).
• Graduate guard Jaddan Simmons pulled down seven rebounds, including a game-high five offensive rebounds, helping MSU to a 17-6 second-chance points scoring advantage.
• Simmons' five boards is her fourth-straight game with five or more rebounds . . . she has snared four or more rebounds in eight of the 10 games.
• Freshman center Ines Sotelo shared team-high honors by swiping three steals to tie her season-high for the third time this season.