Michigan State men's basketball downs San Jose State 79-60 to improve to 3-0
The Spartans of Michigan State held strong against a late rally by the San Jose State Spartans for a home win Thursday night, improving to 3-0 on the early season.
No. 17 Michigan State welcomed yet another familiar face but old foe in the form of Tim Miles, former Nebraska and now San Jose State head coach, to the Breslin Center Thursday night. Like was so often the case when he led the Huskers, Miles left with another loss to Tom Izzo after his Spartans failed to upset Izzo's Spartans in a 79-60 victory for MSU.
Leading MSU was the double-double performance by Jaxon Kohler who finished the night with 17 points and 18 rebounds along with two blocks and an assist. Kohler was also a perfect six-for-6 from the free throw line. Tying him in scoring was Carson Cooper who also added 17 along with seven boards and the team high of seven steals. Cooper finished six-for-7 from inside the arc.
Jeremy Fears Jr. added 15 points and fell just shy of a double-double with nine assists alongside his five boards. Fears was hot from the floor with three-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc and overall finished four-for-7 along with a perfect six-for-6 from the free throw line. Kur Teng added 10 points to finish among the Spartans of MSU scoring in double figures, all of which came in the first half.
On the San Jose side, Colby Garland led all shooters with 22 points, going a perfect two-for-2 from 3-point range and 10-for-16 overall from the floor. Yaphet Moundi added a double-double with 13 points and 11 boards. Thee starting forward for the SJSU Spartans finished the night 11-for-16 from the free throw line.
The win improved MSU to 3-0 on the season while SJSU drops to 0-3 on the year. The loss also drops Miles to 3-8 all-time against Izzo.
First Half
The Spartans of MSU jumped out to an early lead, up 8-2 by the first media break at the 15:32 mark. MSU quickly moved into double digits, increasing its advantage to 14 by the next break with 11:57 left. The 8-0 run during that stretch was kicked off by yet another highlight reel dunk from Coen Carr.
Of course, there were several of those during the game.
The momentum stayed with the MSU Spartans through the rest of the half as the home team built its lead up to 17 by the media break with 6:46 left and later led by as much as 23 twice late in the half. Teng had 10 at the half, but Cooper led MSU in scoring with 12 points. At the buzzer, it was 46-23 MSU.
Second Half
Michigan State held strong through the first 10 minutes of the second half, rallying whenever San Jose State started to make a run. SJSU managed to cut its deficit to 12 twice in that span, but MSU rallied and pushed its lead back out to as high as 20 with 12:05 left in the game.
The Spartans of San Jose refused to make it easy, though. The SJSU defense held MSU to just 41.4% shooting from the floor in the second half after MSU shot 55.2% in the first half. The Spartans also failed to play as aggressively on offense, getting to the free throw line just six times in the second half after drawing fouls by SJSU that sent the team to the charity stripe 19 times in the first half.
Despite the strong defense and improved shooting from SJSU, hitting five-for-10 from beyond the arc in the second half after going just three-for-17 in the first, the Spartans from out west couldn't get any closer than 10 in the final stretch. A trey from Sadraque Nganga with 5:40 left in the game and then a layup by Garland with 4:40 left were the highwater marks of SJSU's attempt to rally and get within striking distance of MSU.
Just over two minutes later from Garland's layup, Michigan State led by 17 and a final jumper from Fears with 34 seconds remaining left the final score at 79-60.
MSU heads east for its next game, taking on No. 9 Kentucky in the Champions' Classic next Tuesday, Nov. 18, in New York City. Tip is set for 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time at Madison Square Garden.