Led by Gary Harris, 5th ranked Michigan State was too strong for Indiana, beating the Hoosiers 73-56 Saturday afternoon at Assembly Hall. The 2012 Indiana Mr. Basketball and former IU recruit tallied a career-high 26 points, including 17 in the first half as the Spartans ran away from the Hoosiers by 17.
The sellout crowd of 17,472 tried to keep the Hoosiers in it, and IU trailed by 8 early in the second half and 9 with around eight minutes to go, but a five point possession consisting of a three pointer and two free throws due to a technical foul put the lead into double figures for good.
“They have all the makings of what a national championship team would look like. They just have too many guys right now, they understand how to win,” said Crean of Michigan State. “We've got to grow out of this. It's getting me downright angry, continued the 6th year coach of his team’s inability to understand momentum and time and score.
“We made some runs, but couldn’t get over the hump,” said IU point guard Yogi Ferrell.
For Indiana (10-5, 0-2), it will head into the second semester still searching for a signature win. Meanwhile, Michigan State .(13-1, 2-0) came away with its first win over IU in four tries.
Ferrell had 10 of the Hoosiers’ first 14, and had 7 points after that. Noah Vonleh had seven rebounds in the first half, but sat for a good portion of the second half with three fouls and ended with 5 points against the big men of Michigan State. Will Sheehey contributed 13, including 11 in the second half on 3-3 shooting from three.
"He’s got to work harder to get open. We’ve got to work harder to get him open,” said Sheehey of Vonleh.
Michigan State guard Keith Appling was quiet in the first half, but had all 14 of his points in the second stanza to propel the Spartans. Michigan State shot 10-24 from three-point range as Tom Izzo improved to 8-3 against Tom Crean, his assistant coach at MSU from 1995-98 and associate head coach in 1998-99.
The Spartans shot 58 percent in the second half as the Hoosiers struggled with turnovers (15) leading to 16 fast break points for MSU.
"We did a good job of stopping their initial break, but in the second break, we didn't challenge enough shots," said Sheehey.
The Hoosiers shot nearly 40 percent from the field and went 13-20 (65 percent) from the foul line. Michigan State added nine blocks and junior forward and Gary, Indiana-native Branden Dawson had two rejections to go along with 13 points on 6-7 shooting.
IU freshman Stanford Robinson contributed a career-high 11 points, but it was his technical foul that led to the 5-point possession for Gary Harris that put the deficit in double figures for good.
It was the first double-digit loss at home for the Hoosiers since March 3, 2011 and the first loss at home for IU this season. Michigan State’s next test will come on Tuesday at home against No. 3 Ohio State, while Indiana will travel to Penn State on January 11th before hosting 4th ranked Wisconsin on January 14th.
