The No. 8 MSU men's basketball team (21-5, 8-5 Big Ten) bounced back from a loss to Purdue on Tuesday with an 88-69 home victory against the Indiana Hoosiers (20-6, 10-3).
MSU senior guard Denzel Valentine led the way with 30 points, 13 assists and five rebounds, while senior forward Matt Costello finished Sunday's game with a career high 22 points, and 11 rebounds.
Indiana was led by 15 points and 10 rebounds from senior forward Max Bielfeldt.
"This was huge," Valentine said. "We only have three home games left so counting down the games. ... We've got to finish out strong. Our goal is to win a national championship and we've got to finish strong."
MSU jumped on top early, using a 9-0 run to take a 11-5 lead. The Hoosiers, however, stormed right back with back-to-back 3-pointers to tie things back up at 11 with 14:47 to play in the half.
MSU and Indiana went back and forth for the next few minutes until the Hoosiers used a 15-2 run to go on top of the Spartans, 33-23, at the 7:58 mark.
MSU steadily clawed its way back into the game and eventually took a 41-40 lead off a Costello layup with 1:19 left in the first half. MSU would take that lead into the break.
Valentine led MSU at the break with 15 points and and six assists. Senior guard Bryn Forbes had 11 points.
Indiana was led by Bielfeldt, who had 10 points and four rebounds in the first 20 minutes of action.
After Indiana took a quick 45-43 lead in the opening minutes of the second half, the Spartans used an 16-2 run during the next five-plus minutes to take a 59-47 lead with 13:23 to go in the game. This prompted an Indiana timeout.
The timeout stymied MSU's initial run, but the Hoosiers were never able to recover.
MSU shot 19-of-30 in the second half for a 63.3 shooting percentage. Indiana, however, was held to just 10-of-31 from the field for 32.3 percent shooting percentage in the second half.
The Spartan's lead got as large as 22 points, as they eventually took the game, 88-69.
Once again, it was MSU seniors who led the way. Valentine, Costello and Forbes combined for 66 of the team's 88 points.
"This is the kind of year we've dreamed of," Costello said of the way he and Valentine have been playing this season. "We've put our time in here into this program, both of us and it just goes to show, you do the right thing for long enough, it will work out for you."
For MSU head coach Tom Izzo, while he's disappointed the play of his team in the first half, he's pleased with how his team was able to turn it around in the second.
"I give our team credit," Izzo said. "We bounced back. Denzel got after it a little bit at halftime. We weren't very good in the first half, even though we got the lead. I didn't think we were playing very well. The second half, I thought we played extremely well defensively and turned our defense into offense."
Next up for the Spartans, they'll take on the Wisconsin Badgers at home on Thursday at 9 p.m.
"We're not sitting here thinking we can win the Big Ten, unless a bunch of people explode," Izzo said. "I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about us getting better every day."
