No. 11 Michigan State dominates East Carolina in Fort Myers Tip-Off, 89-56
Michigan State defeated East Carolina by a final score of 89-56 in Florida. Full game recap here.
The No. 11-ranked Michigan State men's basketball team traveled down to Florida for the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Tuesday afternoon, as Tom Izzo and the Spartans took on Michael Schwartz and East Carolina. In the first-ever meeting between the two programs, MSU demolished ECU in an 89-56 victory.
With the win, Michigan State remains undefeated on the young 2025-2026 season, improving to 6-0. East Carolina falls to 2-4 on the campaign.
Michigan State shot 34-for-67 from the field (51%) and 13-for-28 from 3-point range (46%). Meanwhile, East Carolina shot just 16-for-48 overall (33%) and 6-for-15 from behind the arc (40%).
Forward Jaxon Kohler led the Spartans with 16 points on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting (4-for-4 from 3-point range). He also grabbed eight rebounds. Guard Divine Ugochukwu (a carer-high 16), forward Coen Carr (13) and center Carson Cooper (10) also each scored double-digit points for MSU.
Guard Jordan Riley led the Pirates with 13 points and guard Corey Caulker added 11 points for ECU.
First Half:
The Spartans got off to a sloppy start, with seven turnovers in the first eight minutes of play, but were eventually able to clean things up, as the team finished the half with eight giveaways. However, East Carolina struggled even more with turnovers, giving the ball away 13 times in the first 20 minutes. Something that stood out for Michigan State in the first half was its 10 second-chance points on six offensive rebounds.
East Carolina won the opening tipoff, but a block by Carr on a shot by ECU's Riley and an airball on a 3-point attempt from guard Isaiah Mbeng resulted in a shot-clock violation. On the other end, MSU center Carson Cooper made a pair of free throws to open the scoring in the game. Carr added a layup to give the Spartans an early 4-0 lead.
The Pirates finally got on the board at the 16:33 mark of the first half, following a 3-pointer by guard Tybo Bailey off of a turnover from Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears Jr.
An alley-oop dunk by guard Trey Fort off of a lob from Fears, and a layup by Kohler gave MSU an 8-3 lead at the first media timeout.
At the 13:30 mark, East Carolina tied the game at 9-9, thanks to a free throw and jumper by Caulker and a 3-pointer by Riley (freshman forward Cam Ward added a free throw for the Spartans).
Kohler responded with a 3-pointer of his own to give Michigan State the lead back at 12-9 with 13:10 left to play in the first half. Guard Kur Teng and Ugochukwu added triples as well. Ward followed with a layup and Kohler added another 3-pointer. This was all part of a 14-2 run, which pushed the Spartans' lead to 23-11 with 8:55 to play before halftime.
Mbeng finally stopped the Spartans' run with a triple, but Michigan State then scored seven-straight points — a pair of free throws from Cooper, a second-chance 3-pointer from Fears following an offensive rebound by Fort, and a turnaround jumper by Kohler — to give MSU a 30-14 advantage with 6:42 showing on the first-half clock.
Caulker answered Michigan State's run with a 3-pointer, but the Spartans responded by energizing the fans in Fort Myers with an alley-opp dunk from Copper off of the feed from Fears. This gave MSU a 32-17 lead with 6:15 to play before heading to the locker rooms.
Starting with the aforementioned highlight play by Cooper, Michigan State ended the first half on a 17-7 run, which included triples from Ugochukwu, Fort and freshman wing Jordan Scott.
The Spartans led the Pirates by a score of 47-24 at halftime.
Second Half:
The second half was all Spartans.
East Carolina scored the first four points of the half with a jumper from Riley and a layup by center Giovanni Emejuru, but Michigan State opened the second stanza with a 16-6 run in just over the first seven minutes of play after halftime. A 3-pointer from Kohler, nine points from Carr (including a triple and a pair of dunks), a jumper from Fort and a layup from Ward made up those 16 points.
ECU finally got another point on the board from a single free-throw make by Riley, but the Spartans punished the Pirates once again, scoring 10-straight points, including a three-point play the old-fashioned way from Ugochukwu and a three-pointer by Kohler. The Spartans' lead grew to 73-31 with 11:45 remaining on the clock.
The Pirates added four more points via free throws from Riley, forward Reid Cason and Emejuru, but went nearly 11 minutes without a field goal before Cason finally broke the drought at the 7:55 mark with a layup. Cooper answered for MSU with a dunk and Caulker got another bucket for ECU with a jumper and a free throw on an and-one. Michigan State led 77-40 with 7:10 left on the clock. A pull-up jumper by Ugochukwu extended the Spartans' lead to 79-40 at the 6:01 mark.
Ugochukwu was not done yet, as he drilled another 3-pointer to give Michigan State an 82-43 advantage with 5:13 left on the game clock. Redshirt freshman center Jesse McCulloch and a triple from Fears added to the Spartans' total, while redshirt freshman forward Brennan Walton scored his first career basket on a step-back jumper.
The score eventually went final at 89-56 in a dominant effort by the Spartans.
East Carolina finished the game with 24 turnovers. Michigan State turned the ball over just three times in the second half to finish with 11 total giveaways.
Michigan State will remain in Florida this week, as the Spartans take on No. 16 North Carolina on Thanksgiving Day. That contest is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday and will air on FOX.
