Senior Drew Neitzel celebrates with fellow guard junior Travis Walton after gaining an early lead against N.C. State at Breslin Center Wednesday night. The Spartans took the lead from the start and never let N.C. State come close to catching up in the 81-58 victory.
MSU freshman guard Durrell Summers cut behind a defender, caught a backdoor bounce pass, leapt and went under the basket while kissing a reverse layup off the backboard. He rolled across the floor to the sideline after being fouled while the ball bounced around in the cylinder before dropping in.
It was just that kind of night.
While N.C. State turnovers and missed-shot attempts piled up, MSU baskets hopped in and around the cylinder before dropping for home-team scores — just that kind of night.
The No. 10 Spartans (5-1) led by double digits for much of the first half and by as much as 32 points in the second half en route to a résumé-building 81-58 win over No. 24 N.C. State (4-2) Wednesday night at Breslin Center.
“We’re starting to execute better,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said.
“This team is still young and certain lineups don’t know each other and we’ve got to get better every day if we’re going to be a good team at the end. But I like the chances we have to get better every day.”
Izzo opted to go with a veteran starting lineup and the Green and White jumped out to an 8-2 early lead before leading 41-19 at the half.
Junior forward Goran Suton scored MSU’s first eight points, including dunking a shot-fake assist from senior guard Drew Neitzel — the first points of the game.
Suton had 16 points, all in the first half, and four steals to accompany 12 rebounds.
“Over the summer, I worked hard and realized I needed to do something different,” Suton said.
“We got some easy points. We got some easy baskets by being aggressive. We set great screens for the guards and they made great shots.”
Neitzel, back to full-strength after battling stomach illness, had 17 points and five assists to lead the Spartans, while sophomore forward Raymar Morgan had 15 points and seven rebounds.
“We had a lot of guys that contributed,” Izzo said. “We made a couple of big steps. This will be a very good win for us, but (N.C. State is) a better basketball team than they played tonight.”
MSU didn’t let up in the second half, as Morgan connected on a jump shot to give the Spartans a 43-19 lead right out of the gates, two of six points out of the break.
Following Morgan’s outburst, Neitzel hit back-to-back 3-pointers, one made possible by a Suton hustle play in which he retrieved his own air-ball miss and threw it off an N.C. State defender to regain the MSU possession.
“(MSU) won the hustle award and the physical award tonight and we weren’t able to match that,” N.C. State head coach Sidney Lowe said.
“We ran into a team that was clicking tonight. We got too far behind and we couldn’t make shots.”
The Wolfpack had ample opportunity to narrow the second-half lead, thanks to 13 MSU second-half fouls. N.C. State converted 12 of 20 free throws in that span, but a consistent array of MSU baskets kept the margin out of reach all the way until the final buzzer.
The visitors did manage a 16-4 run with under 10 minutes to play in the game, thanks in part to 3-pointers from Dennis Horner and Farnold Degand and a slam dunk from J.J. Hickson.
Hickson finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Wolfpack.
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With the win, MSU brings its record in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge to 5-3. The Spartans continue play against Jacksonville at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Breslin Center.
