For the second time in as many games, the MSU basketball team locked in to the opponents' leading scorer and shut him down.
But unlike Sunday's loss to U-M, the Spartans' (11-8 overall, 3-4 Big Ten) defense on Indiana guard Bracey Wright proved to be crucial and, arguably, the difference in Tuesday night's 61-54 victory over the Hoosiers at Breslin Center.
Against the Wolverines, MSU held U-M's leading scorer LaVell Blanchard to only two points.
Wright, who had missed Indiana's last four games and hadn't seen any action since Jan. 11, was the Big Ten's second-leading scorer with 19.1 points per contest. He was a game-time decision for Tuesday's game and played 29 minutes.
Unfortunately for the No. 19 Hoosiers (14-5, 4-3), the Spartans' daunting defense of sophomore guards Kelvin Torbert, Alan Anderson and Tim Bograkos shut the freshman phenom down.
Wright was limited to only four points on an 1-for-6 shooting performance from the field. That included an abysmal 0-for-4 from 3-point land.
"It was just a big-time team effort on him," Torbert said. "He's a great player and we knew coming in we had to contain him the best we can.
"I mean, he's scored 30 points a couple of times this year and we didn't want him doing that tonight."
MSU head coach Tom Izzo said he felt Torbert played his best game as a Spartan - on both ends of the court. Defensively, Izzo said Torbert's hand never seemed to leave Wright's face.
But Izzo added Wright should be back to 100 percent when the teams meet again in Bloomington, Ind., in 13 days on Feb. 8.
"Bracey Wright's gonna get better and better," he said. "He's going to get his game back."
Indiana head coach Mike Davis was short on words following his team's loss. He said Wright was still playing in a significant amount of pain.
Davis added he would have liked to play Wright down the stretch but cramps forced Wright to have a seat on the bench as the Spartans sealed the victory.
It was evident from the tipoff that Wright was going to be Indiana's go-to guy as Wright took the Hoosiers' first shot just 21 seconds into the game. It forecasted the result of the majority of Wrights shots Tuesday - long and off the iron.
After missing four consecutive triples over the next 14 minutes, Wright finally scored by splitting a pair of free throws to send the teams into the locker room knotted at 27.
It was halfway through the second half that Wright scored his only field goal of the game. But even that didn't exploit the Spartans' half-court defense.
Wright picked off freshman point guard Rashi Johnson's pass and drove in for an uncontested layup.
For the next minute, the game's momentum seemed to be shifting to the Cream and Crimson's side. But the Green and White halted the shift by shutting down Wright for the rest of the game.
He did manage to split another pair of free throws with 5:18 left in the game to pull Indiana to within 50-47 and give him his final point of the night.
Anderson said MSU's defense was ready for any offensive maneuver Wright was going to try.
"We knew he was quick, but we guard quick guys in practice all the time so we didn't expect anything different," Anderson said. "I mean, he's very quick and he can do it all, but we just stayed on him and that was big in tonight's win."
