Michigan State unleashes Divine Ugochukwu in narrow 76-72 win at Penn State

Michigan State narrowly eked out a win at Penn State on Saturday, escaping 76-72 to stay undefeated in early Big Ten play as it improves to 2-0 in the conference and 9-1 overall.

The Spartans were plagued by turnovers in this one, coughing it up 17 times that led to 17 points for the Nittany Lions. MSU had to rely more on factors like the rebound battle where the team bested PSU 40-27, including a 29-18 advantage on the defensive glass and 11-9 on the offensive glass that resulted in 13 second chance points for MSU.

Multiple career performance records from Divine Ugochukwu in his first career start helped lead the way as the sophomore guard led MSU with 23 points and also bested his personal steals record with three. Prior to Saturday, Ugochukwu had just 35 points on the season, 16 of which came against East Carolina. He also posted a career-high in field goal attempts (10), field goals made (eight), 3-point attempts (five), and 3-point field goals made (five).

Across the rest of the Spartans' roster, Jaxon Kohler posted another double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds while notching a block and steal. Carson Cooper added 10 points and a block while Jeremy Fears Jr. came just shy of a double-double with eight points and nine assists. For the Nittany Lions, Fred Dilione V matched Ugochukwu's 23 points while Kayden Mingo added 11 and Ivan Juric scored 10 for PSU players in double figures.

First Half

Michigan State took the lead early, but was never able to pull away, leading by only nine shortly after the first media break after a trey from Kur Teng. Ugochukwu had already notched five of his 23 points by then.

Cooper had also added a highlight reel dunk and drawn a flagrant one foul shortly after to help give MSU its largest lead at the time. Fears was whistled shortly after for a questionable flagrant one as well which head coach Tom Izzo was upset over. After review, it seems the officials decided what Fears called a play for the ball on a breakaway layup attempt by Sasa Ciani was too aggressive or not clear enough of a play for the ball and gave the Nittany Lions the ball after two free throws.

Penn State grabbed the momentum from there and tied it up soon after before opening up its own nine-point lead with 6:41 left in the half, up 31-22. The Spartans fought back and landed two big dunks, including the below by Coen Carr, before the buzzer.

At the half, MSU trailed 39-36.

Second Half

MSU managed to find its groove coming out of the locker room initially. The Spartans tied it up just over two minutes into play and slowly built out their largest lead of the game thanks to an and one by Jordan Scott following a made trey.

The lead was short lived as the Spartans went cold while the Nittany Lions rattled off an 11-0 run over the next two minutes to retake the lead, 52-51. The game went back and forth as the score was tied or a narrow lead flipped nine times until Ugochukwu flipped it back to the Spartans for good on a 3-pointer with 3:27 left. Both teams went cold from there until Ugochukwu again scored from beyond the arc with :55 remaining.

While PSU tried to rally and cut it to a one-possession game on a trey from Dilione with nine seconds left, MSU answered with a pair of free throws by Ugochukwu to keep it out of reach and that was the game.

The Spartans return home to host Toledo on Tuesday, Dec. 16 as non-conference play resumes. The game is set for 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time streaming on Peacock.