The No. 25 MSU women's basketball team stepped out of conference to grab a 64-41 win over Detroit Mercy on Monday afternoon.
The Spartans (11-3) used a press and their matchup zone defense to overwhelm the Titans (6-7). MSU forced 20 turnovers, which it turned into 21 points.
"Their matchup zone is as good as anybody's in the country," Detroit head coach Mickey Barrett said. "They know how to play it and their intensity is good."
It was the intensity that helped the Spartans hold their opponents to less than 50 points for the seventh time this season. The only better showing was against Temple, who scored 40 points.
"Our team played well together and it was good to get some people out there and increase our depth a little bit more," MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "We needed to get back to basics and focus on what we do.
"We need to be who we are, which is a blue-collar, hard-working and young team. We have no All-Americans on this team, there are no first team All-Big Ten players and we do not have anybody averaging 25 points a game or even close."
Sophomore guard Lindsay Bowen leads MSU with an average of 12.6 points per contest. Bowen was the leading scorer against the Titans with 20 points.
It was only the fourth time this season an MSU player has scored 20 or more points in one game.
Bowen had 26 against Notre Dame and 20 against Pepperdine, while junior guard Kristen Haynie had 23 points against the Fighting Irish.
Against Detroit, MSU got another huge contribution from its bench, as they combined to score 25 points and collect 15 rebounds. Freshman guards Rene Haynes and Victoria Lucas-Perry led the way with 10 and nine points, respectively.
"Anybody can step up and the freshmen are doing a great job stepping up right now," Haynie said. "We have a team where anyone can do it any given night; everyone plays good minutes for us and we're just a balanced team."
The game was the second consecutive year Michigan State University hosted the "When I Grow Up" program at a game. Last season, the game set the all-time, single-game attendance record for an MSU women's basketball game, as 12,058 people packed Breslin Center to watch MSU beat Kent State.
McCallie said it was nice to have this season's 5,810 fans there, even though it wasn't the record-setting event it was the last time around.
"The kids' enthusiasm was incredible, they were great," McCallie said.
