MSU beat Penn State Sunday afternoon 92-65 for its second straight 20-point win. The Spartans move to 3-1 in Big Ten play in senior Denzel Valentine's first game back after a four-game absence.
It wasn't Valentine who was the story in this one, though, as fellow senior and longtime teammate Byrn Forbes exploded out of gates scoring 20 points in the first half including shooting 6-of-8 from the three point line. Forbes did not score in the second half and did not even attempt a field goal.
After having a slow first half with zero points on 0-of-5 shooting from the floor, Valentine heated up in the second half, finishing the game with 10 points, shooting 4-of-6 in the second half and adding four rebounds and four assists.
The game was close early on with MSU leading just 12-7 before an 11-0 run, including two of Forbes' six first half threes during that stretch, pursing the MSU lead to 23-7.
Penn State would not go away though mounting a 13-4 run of their own over the next five minutes to cut MSU's lead to 27-20 including eight of those points coming at the free throw line.
Seven is as close Penn State would manage to get for the rest of the game as Forbes hit three three pointers over the final three minutes to help MSU take a 40-27 lead into the half.
MSU's big men continued their great play of late as senior Matt Costello, junior guard Gavin Schilling and freshmen Deyonta Davis combined for 27 points and 20 rebounds, led by Schilling who scored a season high 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and added a season high 7 rebounds.
After trading baskets to begin the second half, MSU used a 12-2 run to extend their lead to 20 points where it would remain for about the next three minutes, until MSU used another 10-0 run to jump out to a 30-point lead at 74-44 with just about 8 minutes to play.
MSU continued their hot shooting, shooting the ball 50.7 percent from the floor, including 50 percent on three pointers, while assisting on 15 of their 31 field goals.
MSU also had another solid defensive outing as they out-rebounded Penn State 40-32 and held them to 42 percent shooting, including 23.1 percent from the three point line and 7 steals.
MSU wasn't without issues in this one however as they fouled Penn State 24 times, leading to Penn State shooting 28 free throws of which they made 20, in comparison to just 12-of-15 from the free throw line for MSU.
Next up for MSU will be a rematch with Iowa at Breslin Center on Thursday night at 7 p.m. Iowa handed the Spartans their only loss of the season in Iowa City on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015 when they beat MSU 83-70 in MSU's second game without Valentine.
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