The MSU men's basketball team thrived off an energized crowd and an ESPN audience Wednesday to pick up an impressive 82-75 win over Virginia on Wednesday night.
With the victory in the ACC/Big Ten challenge, the No. 21 Spartans (3-2) avoided their first losing record in seven years. The last time MSU was below the .500 mark was when it was 5-6 in 1995.
It looked like the Spartans would dip into unfamiliar territory early as they trailed 19-16, but a 17-0 run beginning in the middle of the first half erased any doubts.
"We just had to go out and do one thing tonight and that was win," senior forward Adam Ballinger said. "We had that run and then the energy and intensity picked up and we're pretty hard to beat when we play like that."
Freshman center Erazem Lorbek started the run with a tip-in and then added two more points on a pair of free throws. Sophomore guard Chris Hill spiced up the run by scoring eight straight points. Virginia was without a basket for more than four and a half minutes.
But down 33-19, Cavalier center Nick Vander Laan halted the run with a dunk off of a Spartan turnover. MSU led 36-25 at halftime.
The Cavaliers (3-2) never got closer than seven after the outburst. The Spartans led by 14 points with just less than two minutes to play. But Cavalier triples and missed Spartan foul shots killed the chance for a blowout.
Hill led the Spartans' charge most of the night. When it appeared the Cavaliers were putting together a run, Hill would ignite the Spartan bench and the Breslin Center crowd with a triple. He finished the game with 22 points and was 5-for-7 from beyond the three point arc.
Hill wasn't the only offensive weapon. Three other Spartans finished the night in double figures. Sophomore guard Alan Anderson chipped in with 15 points, while sophomore guard Kelvin Torbert and senior forward Aloysius Anagonye added 11 and 10, respectively.
"After those last two games this was all about the self pride that was on the line," Anagonye said.
"We just needed to step up, go out there and represent."
But it wasn't offense that fueled the Spartans' dominance - it was defense. MSU recorded 11 steals and five blocks. The Spartans scored 26 points off 19 Virginia turnovers. MSU also won the battle on the glass, out-rebounding the Cavaliers 31 to 28.
The key defensive number may be 10. That is the number of points heralded forward Travis Watson scored, six of which came during the meaningless final minutes.
He came into the game leading Virginia with 16 points per contest but spent most of the first half on the bench after picking up three fouls in the first ten minutes. He only played 23 minutes for the game.
"I think foul trouble with Watson really hurt them otherwise it may have been a different story," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said.
Neither team took control of the game from tip-off as the contest went into the first television timeout knotted at seven. But the Spartans did benefit from two Watson fouls in the first three minutes of play.
MSU improved to 3-0 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Chris Mackinder can be reached at mackind8@msu.edu.
