In the event MSU makes a run to championship game on Sunday, the Spartans will have to play four games in four days. By spreading out the minutes in an early round game, the team likely will have the benefit of fresh legs later on in the tournament, Mechant said.

“I like we were able to spread the minutes with nobody really playing more than 20 minutes,” Merchant said. “(Freshman center Jasmine Thomas) played 26 minutes, but everybody was 20 or less. So that was a really nice opportunity. And I think we were led, again, by at this time of year you really need your upperclassmen, your seniors, to step up, and these two next to me certainly did that and set the tone for everybody else to kind of follow suit.”

In Thursday’s win — which marked MSU’s most points scored against a Big Ten opponent since scoring 101 vs. Northwestern on Feb. 3, 2005 — the Spartans got points from 11 different players and had 10 players who played at least 10 minutes in the game.

“We talked about it’s going to be hard playing four games in four days, but I think for us it was really good, get on the floor,” senior forward Taylor Alton said.

“We were really talking about it like it’s a good chance for us to feel out the floor, get a game under our belt, like you said, and just kind of get better ourselves so we can really make a strong push these last three games, which is our goal, to be here on Sunday.”

The Spartans will need to be as rested as possible going up against the Big Ten’s stingiest scoring defense, which leads the conference in several categories. On the season, the Boilermakers surrendered just 57.7 points per game and are among the conference’s best in steals (first, 9.9 per game), blocked shots (second, 4.4 per game) and turnover margin (third, 2.59 average).

In the season series, MSU and Purdue split in two very different types of games. On the road in West Lafayette, Ind. on Jan. 23, the Spartans fell 67-49, before rebounding nearly a month later to beat the Boilermakers, 67-52 in overtime at Breslin Center.

In the rubber match tonight Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the Spartans know what to expect from a familiar foe and should be rested enough to get the job done and advance to the semifinals on Saturday, freshman center Jasmine Hines said.

“We didn’t play so good the first time, and then when we played them at home, we played pretty good but I still think we can play better,” Hines said. “They have great guard play. They have good post players that play their roles so we just gotta play like we did (Thursday). Just have a good balance between our guard play and post play, and have everyone play together.”