Izzo spoke about burning the Rutgers loss tape last year and might play Saturday’s 84-63 win at Jersey Mike’s Arena for the 13th-ranked Spartans throughout the season.
In their second consecutive home victory over MSU, the Scarlet Knights (13-9 and 7-5 Big Ten) played with the same energy, intensity, and desperation that Izzo expects from the Spartans (17-5 and 8-3).
e MSU had no answers, especially after Izzo’s technical foul in the second period that fuelled the Scarlet Knights’ 27-10 victory.
Gave Brown scored 20 on 7-for-9 shooting and 6 of 7 from the 3-point line. Marcus Bingham Jr. scored 12 points, and Tyson Walker (who suffered from foul trouble in the first half) finished with nine.
The Spartans were defeated on the boards 31-20 by Rutgers and outscored 38-16 by the Painters. Rutgers had a 11-0 advantage in fast-break points and shot a remarkable 61.5% from behind the arc. MSU was 44.2% overall, and went 11-for-24 in 3-point range. The Spartans’ 15 turnovers resulted in 19 Scarlet Knight points.
Rutgers’ Ron Harper Jr. was the star scorer with Rutgers, scoring 17 points. He is one of six Scarlet Knights who reached double digits. Paul Mulcahy was the Scarlet Knights’ star. He scored 15 points, shot 6-for-9, had 12 assists and four rebounds.
MSU will host No. 11 Wisconsin at Breslin Center (7 p.m./BTN).
Rutgers took advantage of the energy from its home crowd at The RAC and made 10 of its first 13 attempts to build a 23-16 lead. After Dean Reiber’s 3-pointer and second-chance layup, Rutgers was just shy of the halfway point. The Scarlet Knights had a 9-4 advantage and were limiting Spartans to 5-for-14 shooting.
MSU was unable to win the game due to the 3-point shooting of Max Christie and Brown. Brown was able to find his rhythm during a 12-point run that included a tip in and back-toback 3-pointers. With 4:24 left in the first half, Bingham tied the game with a layup off of a Hoggard needle-threading pass.
Walker was on the bench for three fouls. A.J. A.J. Hoggard split a team for a driving layup, setting up Joey Hauser to make a 3-pointer with forty seconds remaining. Brown then made another one from deep as the clock expired. MSU was leading 40 to 38 at halftime, despite Rutgers shooting an alarming 61.5% overall. Rutgers shot 4-for-8 from 3-point range.
Brown managed to get out of a six game slump by going 4-for-5 from deep. After a slow start to the boards, the Spartans went 8-16-3 on 3-point shots and managed to rebound back to a 14-13 advantage.
After halftime, things regressed almost instantly.
Rutgers opened the 2nd half with a Mulcahy short jumper in paint. Christie received a pass from Hoggard on his right and drove to the basket. Harper gave him a hip-check and he fell to the floor. Caleb McConnell fouled a 3-pointer at one end. A jilted Izzo was whistled for technical foul.
Rutgers scored seven of the first half’s points as Harper made the free throws following Izzo’s technical. Then, Rutgers went on a 11-0 run to win the game. MSU trailed MSU by 23 points, and seemed lifeless as they were sung goodbye by the home crowd.
