Instead of a cushion, the No. 11 Spartans (15-2, 3-1) played on their heels — yet succeeded in a ground out 66-60 MSU win Tuesday night at Breslin Center to defeat Ohio State (12-5, 3-2).

“Like our games have been lately, it was a little bit of a strange game from the standpoint of playing so well early,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said.

Sophomore forward Raymar Morgan found himself in early foul trouble — making his presence virtually nonexistant the entire game.

Not only was this his lowest-scoring effort all season with just six points, but it was the first time he has failed to score in double digits in the last 20 games.

And when your leading scorer is plagued by whistles, the points need to come from another source.

That source?

It wasn’t just one guy who stole the show — as MSU fought Ohio State with a balanced scoring attack, getting 13 points from both senior guard Drew Neitzel and freshman guard Kalin Lucas.

“When they went small, they just did a good job of going small and we didn’t have Raymar (Morgan) around to counter that and that really hurt us,” Izzo said. “It was kind of a total team win — it seemed like everybody added something.”

Lucas said the win felt great, but there was still a lot of room for improvement — as he said his team got too comfortable and let the Buckeyes play with more energy and intensity.

The Spartans outrebounded the Buckeyes 46-31 and had just 11 turnovers — yet struggled from the charity stripe down the stretch, shooting an un-MSU-like 9-for-17.

On Monday, Izzo said Ohio State’s Jamar Butler would be the most dangerous Buckeyes player — and if Izzo’s squad let the guard heat up, it would be tough to splash him with cold water.

And with 6:54 to play, Butler scored the team’s remaining 14 points, finishing with a team-high 21 points.

“None of this is new to (Butler) like it is to the other guys,” Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said. “We’ve gotta have other guys step up and play to their ability. It’s there if we do it. It’s just more of the consistency night in, night out.”

And even in the heat of their runs, the Buckeyes couldn’t find a way to edge the Spartans — as MSU never lost the lead after obtaining it 1:41 into the game.

OSU would chip away at a seven-point MSU lead several times — but the Spartans would respond and go back up by seven or eight.

Arguably some of the best plays came from MSU’s fifth-year senior Drew Naymick.

Naymick’s No.1 priority isn’t to shoot 10- to 15-foot jump shots. But luckily for MSU, the starting center wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger when he was needed — scoring a season-high 11 points.

“I think (Naymick’s) starting to play with a little more energy,” Izzo said. “You gotta be thinking shot first, and he has the capability of shooting the 15-foot shot no question.”

Naymick said after the team looked at film on the Buckeyes they noticed the high post would be open many times.

“The bigs came into the game ready to shoot that,” Naymick said. “I hit my first one and got some confidence and went from there.”

The Spartans jumped out to an early 32-11 lead in the first 16 minutes of the game — before the tide turned in favor of Matta’s Buckeyes.

The Green and White knocked down five 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes — two coming from Neitzel, who came out firing right off the bat as he led all scorers with eight points by the time MSU jogged into the locker room up 34-21.

“(My game) felt better,” Neitzel said. “A step in the right direction — I knocked down some shots. I was just out there having fun. I was into the game and I feel good about the way I played.”

MSU travels to Minnesota to battle the Golden Gophers at 4 p.m. Sunday.