Spartans pull away from Northwestern, win 79-70

Lucas, Summers post season-highs in points

MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo couldn’t imagine a better birthday present.

MSU used an 18-4 run to open the second half and pull away from a two-point halftime lead en route to a 79-70 victory against Northwestern Saturday night at Breslin Center.

“Believe it or not, that was one of the more complete games we’ve played,” said Izzo, who turned 55 on Saturday. “If you looked at our offense, I thought early we started off with a dunk. We had some great opportunities.”

The Spartans were fueled by season-high point totals for junior guards Kalin Lucas (23) and Durrell Summers (24), who posted his third career double-double.

“That’s what I’m expecting of (Lucas) — no turnovers,” Izzo said.

After two nail-biting road victories, it was clear early the Spartans were glad to be home.

The team was goofing around during introductions and opened with an alley-oop dunk by Summers.

The Spartans grabbed six of the first eight rebounds, and it quickly appeared MSU would be able to run the Wildcats out of the gym. But the offensive rim became smaller for Spartans, and Northwestern began hitting their trademark 3-point shots.

“With 11 (attempted MSU) threes in the first half, I probably was thrilled with 10 of the shots, which is unbelievable,” Izzo said. “They just didn’t go in.”

The Spartans went into the locker room up 30-28 at halftime, but the two teams couldn’t be much closer. The first half featured four ties and six lead changes as no team led by more than five.

The Spartans shot only 37 percent in the first half but MSU grabbed more offensive rebounds than Northwestern did on the defensive side, which led to 11 second-chance points. Summers led the charge with eight points and seven rebounds in the half.

“The job Durrell Summers did on the offensive boards was a big difference early, since we weren’t shooting very well,” Izzo said.

The Spartans began the second half the same as the first – with an alley-oop dunk by Summers.

MSU built an early five-point lead and just as Northwestern began to stumble, junior guard Chris Allen put them down for good with a thunderous slam down the baseline that sent Breslin Center into a frenzy.

“I just know that was the energy booster for everybody,” Allen said. “It got the crowd going, my teammates got hyped. That just loosened everybody up.”

The dunk highlighted MSU’s 18-4 run.

“In the second half, they started off 18-4 and that really was the game,” Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said. “It was just like, ‘Bang.’ We had a hard time scoring and I think their defense picked up.”

The Spartans allowed only one Northwestern field goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Both teams got into foul trouble early in the second half and the game turned into a free-throw contest down the stretch, and the Wildcats could only cut the MSU lead to six points.

The Spartans are 9-0 in the Big Ten for the first time in school history and hold a three-game lead in the Big Ten standings. They will put their perfect conference record on the line again Tuesday when they travel to Madison, Wisc. to face Wisconsin.

Although it was a happy birthday for Izzo, who turned 55, he was able to find some mistakes he hopes to fix before Tuesday.

“We were a little sloppy at the end but we don’t want everything perfect going into Madison,” Izzo said with a grin.