Indiana too strong for Michigan State, nets 82-69 victory despite Joey Hauser's 22

On3 imageby:Jim Comparoni01/22/23

JimComparoni

Indiana stormed back from a 9-point first-half deficit to beat sick and tired Michigan State, 82-69, on Sunday at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, with Trayce Jackson-Davis coming back from a slow start to score a game-high 31 points.

Six of Jackson-Davis’s points came on dunks in the last two minutes. He was 10-of-20 from the field as Michigan State tried to slow him down with digs and double-teams from guards.

Joey Hauser led the Spartans with 22 and had a marvelous opening 10 minutes as Michigan State built a 25-16 with 7:43 left in the first half. 

Jaden Akins played perhaps his best game as a Spartan, scoring 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He was 3-of-4 from 3-point range. His steal and soaring hatchet jam gave the Spartans a 44-42 lead with 15:52 left, helping Michigan State bounce back from a 37-32 halftime deficit.

But Indiana was too steady, strong, balanced and explosive down the stretch.

WHAT’S NEXT

Michigan State is looking forward to a day of much-needed rest on Monday, getting an ill Tyson Walker back up to speed and possibly regaining Malik Hall in the lineup within a week. Hall is out with a foot injury. Walker played through flu-like symptoms on Sunday.

Michigan State fell to 13-7 overall and 5-4 in the Big Ten. Indiana improved to 13-6 and 4-4. 

Michigan State will play host to Iowa on Thursday. That will mark MSU’s first game with a three-day prep since the Spartans beat Michigan on Jan. 13. 

Michigan State’s game at Indiana marked the Spartans’ fifth straight on a two-day prep as the Spartans crammed five games in 13 days.

Indiana had a five-day rest prior to its double-digit victory over Illinois on Thursday while the Illini were playing their fourth game in 10 days.

“I’m not disappointed in my team,” said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. “We’re going to win some games and if we can get healthy we’re going to get a lot better. We need that. It’s taken a told on Joey.”

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

* Michigan State was 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from 3-point range while Indiana was 9-of-15 (60 percent).

“I thought we did a good job on Trayce Jackson-Davis in the first half,” Izzo said. “Then in the second half they hit threes. They haven’t been making threes. They hit nine of them.”

* Hauser finished 6-of-12, including 1-of-3 from 3-point range.

* AJ Hoggard finished with 11 points on 2-of-8 shooting. 

* Tyson Walker was held to 8 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 0-for-2 from long range.

“This morning at breakfast, we didn’t think he (Walker) was going to play,” Izzo said. “Stomach virus. He didn’t practice yesterday. They put some things in his veins.

“He played 32 minutes and I apologized to him three times. I had no choice. He was running on fumes.”

* Michigan State wasn’t badly hurt by turnovers, but a rash of seven of them in the last 12 minutes of the first half were expensive.

* Michigan State out-rebounded Indiana 32-30, but Indiana converted some costly offensive boards which made a difference.

TURNING POINT

Indiana led by 7 at 62-55 with 7:47 left when Indiana hit a third-chance field goal which ignited a 10-2, game-changing run ending with a pair of Jackson-Davis free throws and a sudden 15-point lead at  72-57 with 5:17 to go.

The third-chance trip was a back-breaker for Michigan State. Leading by 7 and Jackson-Davis missing a free throw after a media timeout,  Indiana power forward Jordan Geronimo subtly but strongly pushed Hauser under the rim and kept the rebound alive for fellow Hoosier Miller Kopp to save it to a teammate. 

Moments later on that possession, Indiana’s Tamar Bates missed a baseline jumper and then Geronomi missed a put-back, and Jackson-Davis got away with a shove to Hauser’s back and hit the put-back to make it 64-55.

On Indiana’s next trip, Bates tried to feed Jackson-Davis in the post. Walker blocked the pass and volleyballed it back to Bates. Bates, left open momentarily from NBA 3-point range, launched a triple and nailed it. Suddenly the 7-point lead ballooned to 12 at 67-55 with 6:16 left and this game was never the same.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

  • Michigan State led 21-14 when Hoggard picked up his second personal foul with 8:17 remaining in the the first half. Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo sat Hoggard for the rest of the half. Indiana outscored the Spartans 23-11 during the final 8:17. Hoggard finished the game with three fouls.
  • Jaden Akins was whistled for his second foul with 5:01 left in the first half and Michigan State leading 25-24. He sat the rest of the first half as well. Akins finished the game with two fouls.
  • Hauser and Jordan Geronimo were tagged with double technicals after getting tangled up under the rim with 17:13 left in the first half. That was Geronimo’s third foul. 

Geronimo gave Hauser a shoulder as the two tangled beneath the rim. Geronimo continued to make contact with Hauser’s left arm after the whistle. Hauser flipped Geronimo’s arm out of the way and both were called for a technical foul in a game that had some short-lived chippiness.

  • Hoggard and Mady Sissoko each had 0-for-2 trips to the foul line in the second half which could have made a dent in Indiana’s double-digit lead. Michigan State shot 19-of-28 from the foul line for the game (67.9 percent). Indiana was 21-of-24 from the stripe.

“They are a 68 percent free throw shooting team and they hit 90 percent today,” Izzo said. “So they did what they had to do to win and we did what we had to do to lose.”

  • With 16:16 left in the first half, Sissoko was shoulder-checked by Indiana’s Miller Kopp while running in transition. The blow knocked Sissoko to the floor. Sissoko stood up and asked Kopp about the contact. Kopp stood his ground, went nose-to-nose with Sissoko while Kopp extended his arms out in defiance. 

Official tagged Kopp with a flagrant one technical foul after reviewing the infraction. Sissoko hit both free throws which gave Michigan State a 9-8 lead.  

“My guys didn’t back down but I didn’t appreciate some of the things that happened, including that first one,” Izzo said. “I didn’t appreciate that one. That’s okay. 

“We didn’t have enough bodies to throw that edge in place and really get after somebody. I thought it was one of the more physical games. In these 16 days we have played maybe the most physical teams in the league in Purdue, everybody knows Rutgers is, and Indiana is a physical team. So we learned a little bit.”

THE FIRST HALF

Michigan State led by 9 at 25-16 with 7:43 left in the first half while playing some of its best basketball of the season, but that groove suddenly evaporated as Indiana went on a 21-4 run to take over proceedings.

After the 9-point deficit, Indiana took its biggest lead of the half at 8 when Jackson-Davis finished a 3-point play off a drive-and-dunk against Jaxon Kohler, plus a foul with 1:05 left in the half at 37-29.

Jackson-Davis, who was an astonishing 15-of-19 while scoring 35 points against Illinois on Thursday, was 5-of-12 from the field in the first half of this game. Michigan State had success early on with the threat of dig help defenders. Jackson-Davis missed his first four field goal attempts and was just 1-of-6 from the floor at one point as Michigan State built its early lead. 

But then he got it going with a field goal in the post against Sissoko, despite the threat of hedge help, which cut MSU’s lead to 20-14. 

Then Jackson-Davis scored on a lob against Sissoko, a runout dunk when Tre Holloman didn’t get back on defense, and then a pair of free throws cut MSU’s lead to 31-29.

Michigan State didn’t commit to double-teaming Jackson-Davis in the first half, and got away with it for 15 minutes. The threat of dig help seemed to upset his timing a bit for awhile, but Michigan State looked to adjust that approach in the second half but couldn’t find sustained success.

* Hauser had a mostly-splended first half for Michigan State, scoring 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting.

Hauser scored 11 of Michigan State’s first 17 points as the Spartans built a 17-8 lead, including a 3-pointer from the right wing, a lefty drive, a transition drive off the glass and a fall-away field goal in the post.

* Kohler gave Michigan State a goof first-half lift for the second straight game, scoring 6 points on 3-of-5 shooting. He showed off his deep set of counter moves in the post for two of those field goals and also hit a face-up jumper which gave Michigan State a 26-27 lead. 

Kohler’s righty hook off the glass gave Michigan State a 29-26 lead with 4:01 left in the first half and seemed to quiet Indiana’s run for the moment. But Michigan State didn’t record another field goal for the remainder of the half.

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