Sophomore forward Raymar Morgan, who leads the team in scoring, had taken over the primary scoring responsibilities this season from senior guard and preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Drew Neitzel.

But for the three Big Ten games preceding the Northwestern matchup, Morgan went cold and scored less than 10 points in three straight games.

“The big thing for us is Neitzel continuing to shoot better and Morgan bouncing back,” Izzo said. “We really need (Morgan) to be a dominant player and I think he is one of the better players in the league. He needs to play like it all the time.”

Against Northwestern, both came to play — Morgan had a team-high 23 points and Neitzel followed closely with 20.

Trading places
One of the focuses Izzo talked about going into the game was silencing Northwestern’s 3-point shooting. But judging from Thursday night’s stat line, it was MSU’s long-range shooting that was so potent.

“We knew there were going to be some open looks and we had to knock down the shots and fortunately we did,” Neitzel said. “The coaching staff did a great job of setting up a game plan and we just had to go out there and execute it.”

The Wildcats entered the game leading the Big Ten in shots made from beyond the arc.

The Spartans were dead last going into Thursday night in 3-point baskets made. At halftime, MSU was 8-for-9 from beyond the arc, while Northwestern was 5-for-12.

Neitzel shot 6-for-10 from deep and the MSU community really got a look at the 3-point shooting Chris Allen can bring to the table, as the freshman guard had a career-high 17 points.

“It was good that we were playing this time because I could just spot up and didn’t have to run that much so it helped a lot,” said Allen, who played on a slightly strained groin. “Coach just told me to be ready to shoot because they’d need me and Drew to be ready to shoot.”

The Spartans shot more than 60 percent from the field and long distance and were 9-for-10 from the free throw line.

Home-court advantage?
During warm-ups and throughout the game, it was often hard to tell who had home-court advantage. A large contingent of MSU fans made the trip to the Chicago area to cheer on the Spartans.

“We really appreciated the fans that showed up,” Izzo said. “Some drove from East Lansing but a lot are from the Chicago area and that was greatly appreciated.”

Welsh-Ryan Arena has a capacity of 8,117, compared to Breslin Center’s 14,759 and the Northwestern students only filled their allotted seats by nearly the end of the first half.

“It was huge,” senior center Drew Naymick said. “I kind of noticed it when I was warming up — there was a lot of green. It was cool, them singing the fight song during timeouts and stuff.”

The lineups were announced with a “Let’s Go State” resounding from the seats and “Go Green, Go White” could be heard at tip-off.