Playing at Little Caesars Arena in Downtown Detroit, the No. 20 ranked Michigan State Spartans basketball team used a second half surge to beat the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies 77-58 on Tuesday night. Despite being about 55 miles further from the venue than their competitors, the Spartans appeared to have many more fans in attendance wearing the green and white school colors. With that being the case, it’s safe to say that the majority of the crowd went home happy that their team won their ninth game of the season.
In what has become somewhat a tradition between Head Coaches Tom Izzo of MSU and Greg Kampe of Oakland, who are friends off the court, both wore Christmas sweaters to celebrate the holiday season match up. This year, Izzo mentioned that Kampe bought the Grinch faced sweaters for the two to wear.
Oakland kept the game close during the first half of play and only trailed MSU by one point at halftime. The Spartans shot fairly well, making 42% of their field goals in the opening half, but were plagued by turnovers, committing seven compared to just one by the Grizzlies in the first 20 minutes. The hot shooting performance by DQ Cole of the Grizzlies also made it difficult for MSU to build any type of lead. Cole shot 5 of 8 from three point range on his way to 15 points in the first half to lead all scorers.
After the break, Cole went cold scoring just two points in the second half. Behind that and with MSU winning the turnover battle in the final half, the Spartans put together a couple of runs including a 10-1 run to start the half leading to a 19 point victory in the end.
Xavier Booker had a game high 18 points off the bench for Michigan State while Jaxon Kohler finished with a double-double adding 14 points and 10 rebounds. Cole led Oakland with 17 points in the loss for his team.
Michigan State (9-2) will head back to E. Lansing and host the Florida Atlantic Owls (7-5) on Saturday 12/21. Oakland (3-6) will have one day of rest before heading to South to take on the Cleveland State Vikings (5-6) on Thursday.
Final Score: Michigan State 77 – Oakland 58
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