Michigan State basketball finally shakes turnover woes in 81-68 win vs. Toledo
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EAST LANSING — Michigan State basketball found its outside shooting touch and limited its turnovers early all while continuing to play air-tight defense.
Next up: conference competition.
The 22nd-ranked Spartans pulled away early and managed to fight off a strong second half from pesky Toledo for an 81-68 victory Saturday at Breslin Center.
Gabe Brown scored 10 of his 12 points and Marcus Bingham Jr. had eight of his 10 points in the first half. Max Christie got 11 of his 14 after halftime; point guards A.J. Hoggard and Tyson Walker combined for 21 points and 10 assists as the Spartans finished with just 12 turnovers.
MSU (7-2) opens Big Ten play Wednesday at Minnesota. Tipoff at Williams Arena in Minneapolis is 9 p.m. on Big Ten Network.
“We took a lot of steps forward, we did a lot of good things – things that can turn into great,” said Hoggard, who had 10 points and four assists. “With things that we're doing poorly, we just got to keep stepping it up and just keep getting better each and every night.”
It was a hot start for the Spartans, one Tom Izzo said it “was as good at first half as we played all year.” But the Hall of Fame coach pointed to the Rockets’ late first-half surge in scoring the final six points after MSU went ahead by 26 points, including a 3-pointer by Ryan Rollins just before the halftime buzzer, and opened the second half on a 10-4 run to make things much tighter down the stretch than Izzo would have preferred.
“I give Toledo a lot of credit. We were 26 up, and we said, 'Put it away now.' We missed a shot, they came down hit one. And that last shot, we just backed up and let him shoot it right in our face,” Izzo said. “That gave them some momentum going into halftime. And you all wonder why I sometimes go off a little bit at halftime. I should have, because I didn't inspire us very good and we didn't inspire ourselves very good.”
The Spartans shook off some early sluggishness — they missed their first five 3-point tries and opened 2-for-9 — to run away from the Rockets at the midpoint of the first half.
Toledo took a 10-7 lead on a three-point play by Kooper Jacobi on a lazy reach-in foul by Malik Hall. But from there, MSU erupted with a 33-5 run that put the game out of reach.
To do so, the Spartans forced the Rockets to commit nine turnovers after the first media timeout and turned those into 14 points by half. MSU committed just four first-half turnovers.
And after the off-target start, the Spartans made nine of their final 12 from 3-point range and 12 of their last 27 shots overall. They finished 12-for-26 from deep for the game and overcame shooting just 37.9% after halftime.
“It did seem like we were hitting everything,” Brown said. “All I can say is guys were just finding the right spots, and shots just came open.”
Brown scored MSU's first seven points and hit one of seven 3-pointers in the pull-away run. Jaden Akins hit two, while Christie, Bingham, Joey Hauser each hit a 3-pointer as well. Tyson Walker's deep bomb off a high ball screen from Mady Sissoko closed the run, and the Spartans went into half leading 43-23.
MSU’s defense remained at an elite level early, holding Toledo to 3-for-11 from 3-point range and just 8-of-30 for the half. Rockets leading scorer Ryan Rollins made just 2 of his first 8 shots, including a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer, and had seven points at halftime.
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Toledo (5-2) opened the second half on a 10-4 run and pulled within 13 at about 10 minutes remaining. A 3-point try by the Jacobi rimmed out, and Jaden Akins drained a second-chance 3 at the other end to extend MSU’s lead back to 64-48 with 8:19 to play.
But Toledo (5-2) remained scrappy, scoring the next seven points to get back within single digits. Julius Marble II responded with a tough layup in traffic and a follow dunk off a Max Chrstie miss with 5:14 to play that forced the Rockets to call timeout. The Spartans’ lead never dipped beneath 11 the rest of the way.
“I think a trend with our team right now for some reason is we come out really strong in the first half. And then the second half comes, and the first four minutes, we'll be talking about ... 'Do you want to win that?' And recently, we have not won any of it,” Christie said. “I mean, Toledo came out and absolutely kicked our butt in the first 4 minutes, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the half.”
MSU held Toledo to 35.4% shooting and just 4-for-24 from 3-point range for the game. Rollins, a sophomore guard from Macomb Dakota who entered averaging 20 points per game, finished with 21 points on 7-for-22 shooting for Toledo.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball shakes turnover bug in Toledo win
