The Spartans wanted to defend their case as a contender for the Big Ten title. Wednesday night against Penn State, they did it with defense.
MSU smothered the Nittany Lions all night en route to a 76-58 victory in front of a jubilant Breslin Center crowd.
"I think we got back to our old selves," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "It was a small, small, small step, but I guess when you are learning how to walk again, you have to take one to get the next one.
"We haven't conquered anything, we haven't accomplished anything - it's just a step."
The Nittany Lions, especially in the second half, couldn't crack MSU's defense. The Spartans forced Penn State (8-6 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) to take many outside shots as the shot clock expired, and when the Nittany Lions did get the ball inside, they ran into Spartan double and triple teams.
Penn State finished the game shooting a poor 38 percent.
"One thing I was impressed with: That was a big team," Izzo said. "We went up and got some rebounds, some range rebounds. We got a lot more out of people."
Penn State forward Jan Jagla entered the game with a team-high 17.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. But junior swingman Alan Anderson and junior guard Kelvin Torbert used their athleticism to contain the 7-footer. Jagla finished the game with just two points on 1-for-8 shooting, his lone basket coming just more than a minute into the game.
"They did a good job on Jan, but he didn't do much to help himself," Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said. "He tried to do stuff he couldn't do instead of playing to his strengths."
But it wasn't just MSU's defense that enabled the Spartans to pull away early in the second half. The Spartans continued their hot field goal shooting, finishing 57.1 percent from the field and 46.2 from behind the 3-point line.
Five Spartans finished in double figures, led by junior guard Chris Hill's 17 points. Hill, whose sixth point of the night gave him 1,000 for his career, was on fire from 3-point land, ending the game 5-for-7 beyond the arc.
Freshman guard Shannon Brown had 13 points while Torbert, sophomore center Paul Davis and sophomore guard Maurice Ager each added 10.
Aside from the win and the fact the Spartans are back in the Big Ten race, MSU did something Izzo and players said they hadn't done in a while - had fun.
"That is the reason you go to any school, to come out, play hard and have fun," Brown said. "We knew what we had to do and what we can do and we went out and did it."
Early in the second half, Izzo received a technical foul for arguing with an official. But he said it made him feel like he was back in the game and it helped energize his players.
"I told my players, they deserve to enjoy something for a couple of hours," Izzo said. "I hope they feel good about it, the way they played.
"I liked how, in the last five minutes, they were talking about their goals they wanted to reach."
