Wednesday, March 6
East Lansing, Mich.
7 PM
Michigan State University
18-12,10-9Big Ten
53
vs
49
Northwestern
20-10,11-8Big Ten
1
2
F
Northwestern
25
24
49
Michigan St.
20
33
53
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell
Michigan State Comes Back to Beat Northwestern, 53-49, on Senior Night
3/6/2024 9:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
East Lansing, Mich. – Graduate guard Tyson Walker hit two layups in the last three minutes and sophomore guard Tre Holloman hit free throws with nine seconds left as Michigan State's men's basketball team came back to beat Northwestern, 53-49, on Senior Day Wednesday at the Breslin Center.
Walker scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the second half, adding five rebounds and a team-high five assists. Walker's layup with 2:30 left in the game gave him the 2,000th point of his college career.
Graduate forward Malik Hall scored 15 points and grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds while Holloman scored 12 points and had four rebounds off the bench.
Records
Michigan State snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 18-12 overall and 10-9 in the Big Ten Conference, while Northwestern falls to 20-10 overall and 11-8 in the league.
Recap
- After trailing most of the first half, the Spartans took their first lead of the game early in the second half, extended it to as many as six points but the teams went back and forth, with five lead changes and two ties.
- Trailing 45-42, Hall hit 1-of-2 free throws and Walker hit two more with 5:38 to tie the game at 45-all.
- Northwestern's Ryan Langborg hit a free throw with 4:28 left to give the visitors a 46-45 lead before Holloman sank two with 3:18 left, giving MSU the lead for good at 47-46.
- Walker followed with layups on two-straight drives to push the lead to 51-46 with 1:44 left.
- After Langborg hit a trey with 58 seconds left, both teams missed shots in the last 30 seconds before Holloman grabbed a defensive rebound, was fouled and hit two free throws with 9.4 seconds left to seal the win.
- MSU trailed by five points, 25-20, at the break, but used an 8-2 burst over the opening 2:39 of the second half and took a 28-27 lead on a jumper from Hall.
- Leading by just two points, 31-29, Hall and Walker both hit layups to give MSU its biggest lead, 35-29, with 13:37 left but a 9-2 run from Northwestern gave the Wildcats a 38-37 lead on a fast break layup from Boo Buie with 11:05 left.
- The Spartans bounced back to take a 42-38 lead on Walker layup with 8:30 left, but the Wildcats scored seven-straight points and took a 45-42 edge on free throws from Nick Martinelli with 6:27 on the clock, setting up the stage for the final minutes.
- The Spartans struggled from the start, hitting just four of their first 21 shots from the field.
- A 3-pointer from Walker tied the game at 5-all, but Northwestern used a 12-4 run and took a 17-9 lead on a second-chance 3-pointer from Buie with 8:33 to play in the half.
- MSU responded with a 7-0 run and pulled to within 17-16 on a 3-pointer from Holloman with 4:07 before the break.
- Northwestern's Brooks Barnhizer hit a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 25-20 lead at halftime.
- Michigan State just shot 31.7 percent from the floor (19-of-60), but hit 42.9 percent of its shots in the second half (12-of-28).
- The Spartans had a 46-35 advantage in rebounding and grabbed 19 offensive rebounds.
- While MSU hit only 65.0 percent of its free throws, the Spartans hit 75.0 percent in the second half (9-of-12) and Malik Hall (3-of-4), Tyson Walker (3-of-4) and Tre Holloman (4-of-4) combined to hit 83.3 percent (10-of-12).
- Michigan State now leads the all-time series with Northwestern, 94-43, including a 53-10 record at home.
- The Spartans snaped a three-game losing streak to the Wildcats.
- MSU Head Coach Tom Izzo improved his career record to 705-292, including a 343-169 mark in Big Ten play.
- The Spartans closed out the regular season with a 14-4 record at home.
- MSU won for just the second time this year when trailing at the half (2-9).
- The Spartans also won for just the second time when their opponent (35.3% to 31.7%) shoots better than them (2-8).
- MSU has a 12-2 record when winning the battle of the boards (46-35).
- The Spartans are 16-5 when their opponent has more turnovers (MSU 8, NU 12).
- MSU is now 2-4 in games decided between 1-5 points.
- The Spartans are 1-3 when scoring less than 60 points.
- MSU is 9-1 when allowing fewer than 60 points.
- The Spartans held Northwestern to 49 points, tied for the fewest by an opponent this year (Alcorn State).
- MSU scored 53 points in the win, the fewest points the Spartans have scored in a win since a 53-48 victory at Minnesota on Feb. 22, 2011.
- Tyson Walker scored 19 points, his 28th game in double figures this year and the 102nd of his career.
- This was the 18th time this season Walker led the team in scoring and the 38th of his career.
- Walker now has 1,322 career points at MSU and is 27th all-time in scoring at Michigan State … He moved past Branden Dawson (2011-15) and Durrell Summers (2007-11) and needs 38 points to pass Nick Ward (2016-19) for 26th place.
- Walker has scored 2,002 points in 149 career games (13.4 ppg).
- He is the ONLY active Division I player with at least 2,000 points, 500 assists and 200 steals.
- Malik Hall scored 15 points and had a career-high 17 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season the fourth of his career.
- Hall has scored in double figures in seven-straight games and in 14 of the last 15 games.
- He now has 1,194 career points and is 38th all-time at MSU … He moved past Mike Peplowski (1989-93) and needs two more points to pass Kelvin Torbert (2001-05) and Alan Anderson (2001-05) for 36th place.
- Tre Holloman scored 12 points off the bench, his fifth game in double figures.
- A.J. Hoggard handed out four assists, giving him 567 for his career (sixth all-time at MSU … He needs 16 more to pass Drew Neitzel (2004-08) for fifth place.
- Hoggard scored 6 points and now has 1,081 career points, tied for 48th place all-time with Goran Suton (2005-09) … He needs 19 points to pass Bill Kilgore (1970-73) for 47th place.
Up Next
Michigan State closes out the regular season on Sunday, March 10, traveling to play at Indiana. The game tips off at 4:30 p.m. on CBS.
Team Stats
NU
MSU
FG%
.353
.317
3FG%
.333
.118
FT%
.600
.650
RB
35
46
TO
12
8
STL
5
6
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
19
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Pts
12
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
4
Pts
6
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
F
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