It was the kind of basketball Tom Izzo loves to see.
Watching his players get floor burns and bruises from diving for loose balls, Izzo got the blue-collar effort he expects of his players in his team’s 77-64 win over North Carolina on Wednesday at the Breslin Student Events Center.
“That’s the way we play,” the MSU men’s head coach said.
However, Izzo felt the No. 3 Spartans (4-0) weren’t the only team playing all out. He said No. 6 North Carolina (3-1) fought just as hard as MSU did.
“I thought both teams played all out,” he said. “Both teams were all over the floor. We had moments when we were good and moments when we were sloppy.
“Our game is running. I felt they ran us better than we ran them.”
North Carolina head coach Matt Doherty said the difference was that his team couldn’t match the Spartans’ consistent scoring.
“We had to match their toughness and I thought we did,” he said. “And if we did we had to match their shots - and we didn’t.”
North Carolina shot 42 percent, while MSU hit 46 percent of its shots.
Sophomore guard Jason Richardson led MSU with 16 points and four rebounds. Tar Heel forward Kris Lang led all scorers with 22 points. MSU senior forward Andre Hutson had 14 points and nine rebounds.
North Carolina’s big guns, guard Joseph Forte and center Brendan Haywood, had trouble with the Spartan defense. Forte was 5 of 16 shooting and finished with 11 points while Haywood had 10 points.
Forte, who entered Wednesday averaging 22.7 points per game, said MSU’s switching and double teams made it hard to get good shots off.
Senior guard Charlie Bell “was guarding me, but if I got past him, there was another guy waiting,” Forte said. “They played great team defense and that paid off.”
MSU and North Carolina traded baskets for most of the opening half. There were six lead changes in the first 10 minutes.
The Tar Heels trailed MSU 26-25 with 4:35 left in the first half before the Spartan offense heated up.
MSU went on a 16-4 run to go into halftime up 42-29. In that stretch, North Carolina turnovers took away opportunities to answer the Spartans.
North Carolina came out firing in the second and reduced MSU’s 13-point lead to seven. However, the Spartans withstood the Tar Heels’ onslaught and rebuilt its lead to 13 points again.
Izzo said his players showed character in stopping North Carolina’s rally.
“We took adversity when they cut the lead,” he said. “We grew as a team.”
The Tar Heels never got closer than seven points in the second half as MSU’s grit and toughness proved too much in the end.
Bell, who finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, said MSU put forth an effort that makes the team so successful.
“That’s Spartan Basketball - going out there and playing with intensity and giving our all,” he said. “We wanted to go out there and make it tough for them.”
Arthur Alcid can be reached at alcidart@msu.edu.
