Michigan State still searching for 40 good minutes after disappointing loss to Buckeyes
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State played well enough on defense for 37 minutes to get a win on their home floor against Ohio State despite an off-shooting night by its starting guards. The problem, however, was the final three minutes that cost the Spartans dearly in a 60-57 loss to the Buckeyes.
“We didn’t execute on defense for 40 minutes in the game,” said senior point guard AJ Hoggard. “The last 2:40 was not how we should have been playing because of the way we started off the game.”
Closing out games has been a problem for Michigan State this season. This isn’t the first close loss the Spartans have experienced.
“We have to close games out better,” Hoggard said. “It’s the same old speech every time we lose. We are always up, and we give up a lead. We’ve got to do a better job of closing out games.”
Getting right in late-game situations isn’t easy. It is, however, necessary as the Spartans seek to do the work required to extend their consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance streak to 26 seasons with games against Purdue, Northwestern, and Indiana remaining in the Big Ten regular season.
“Big Ten games are always going to be gritty, go down to the wire, and teams are going to fight no matter the lead or the margin,” Hoggard said. “We’ve just got to do a better job of keeping our foot on people’s necks. They did a good job of battling through adversity and coming out with a win.
“We didn’t play winning basketball today,” added senior guard Tyson Walker, “so we’ve got to figure out what we need to do to change that, especially down the stretch. We’ve got to make winning plays.”
Michigan State held Ohio State under 40 percent shooting the ball. The Spartans could not, however, keep their opponent off the free-throw line.
“We gave up too many second-chance points,” Walker said. “We did a good job guarding the three, but they got to the line too many times.”
Defensive execution with the game on the line in the closing minutes was one of many issues for the Spartans, who struggled to make shots throughout this game. Walker missed several open looks in the second half, which left him frustrated on a night he shot 5-for-15 overall.
Walker has been battling a groin injury for the past month, and during that time he hasn’t been as potent a scorer as he had been for the first two months of his senior season at Michigan State.
“They did a good job (on defense), but we didn’t do a good job making open ones,” Walker said. “If you make shots it’s a different game. I haven’t been playing good for about a month now. I just have to figure it out, what I’ve got to do better.”
After back-to-back home losses, Michigan State faces the unenviable task of playing Purdue at Mackey Arena next weekend. Playing Purdue on the road has been a nightmare for Michigan State in recent years.
“We are definitely better than we’ve shown,” Walker said, “But we definitely need to get out there and play better.”
Veteran players, however, prefer to view a road game at Purdue as an opportunity.
“We’ve got to put a full 40 minutes together,” Hoggard said. “We’ve got another big game coming up, another opportunity to get back on the right track. A win like that would definitely be big and make up for the two that we dropped. We’ve got to go out there. We played a great 38 minutes tonight and defended well. We didn’t make shots that we normally do and had to find another way to win. I don’t think we did a good job of doing that.”
