The freshman guard has emerged this season as a prolific scorer, but on Tuesday he became the Spartans’ go-to guy.

Plays out of timeouts were called for Lucas, not preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Drew Neitzel, or Raymar Morgan, MSU’s leading scorer.

“Your star players, Drew (Neitzel), Travis (Walton) and Raymar (Morgan), were just not there,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “We put the ball right in (Lucas’) hands in those ball screens. He’s been well coached and well raised. What I didn’t know about him is he’s a lot tougher than I thought.”

Somebody had to step up, and it was the 6-foot-nothin’ freshman who grabbed the torch from his veteran cohorts. Lucas was the only MSU player to have more than two points in the first half, and he scored a career-high 20 with a bum knee that Izzo said prevented Lucas from practicing Sunday. Against Purdue, Lucas looked right past the injury and a raucous Mackey Arena crowd.

“If you go into a game like this, you’ve got to come with confidence,” Lucas said. “I was just trying to get my team back in it, but we came up short.”

It didn’t matter that the Spartans lost. They came well within reach in a hostile environment against the top team in the conference, and it was Lucas’ hand that brought them there.

“Kalin Lucas was unbelievable,” Izzo said. “It was like he was playing by himself for a while and the rest of the team started joining in the second half. He damn near won the game for us by himself.”

Down the stretch, Lucas handled the ball with the confidence of a senior All-American and showed flashes of ballhandling and shot control that allude to the fact that, in due time, he may be recognized with such an honor.