“We needed a game where we could play some of our guys and we just needed a game to get our team on track a little bit,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “We’re not kidding ourselves, that was a tough trip for Alcorn State, but you still have to make shots and we hit a lot of shots.”

The Spartans did indeed hit a lot of their shots, shooting 58.7 percent from the floor. Of their 44 baskets, 35 came on assists (with only 10 turnovers), which was the stat Izzo said he was “most proud of” following the game.

Freshman guard Korie Lucious dished out 11 of those assists, while junior forward Raymar Morgan and freshman forward Delvon Roe each scored 13 points.

Senior forward Marquise Gray and Roe also pulled down eight rebounds, while fellow freshman forward Draymond Green grabbed seven boards and scored 10 points.

MSU outrebounded the Braves 53-26.

“It was a nightmare playing them,” said Alcorn State head coach Larry Smith, who called MSU’s athletic ability its biggest asset. “State is a very good team and they came out and played very well. They did whatever they wanted to.”

The Spartans got off to a bit of a slow start, trailing 13-12 almost seven minutes in.

Then the superior athleticism and talent Smith talked about after the game came into full focus.

The Braves looked to have an easy basket on a two-on-one break against Allen, but fellow sophomore guard Durrell Summers came from behind and blocked a lay-up by Alcorn State’s Brandon Rogers.

The Spartans pushed the ball up court and a lay-up by Green put MSU up 14-13. On their next possession, Lucious found Gray on the block for a wide-open dunk.

The duo of Lucious and Gray hooked up again on MSU’s next trip down the floor, this time on an alley-oop, as the Spartans went on 20-2 run in the next seven minutes en route to a 60-26 halftime lead.

“I think it did,” Gray said of the alley-oop changing the game’s momentum. “When we came out of the huddle Korie told me he was going to throw it regardless, so he left it up to me to go get it and I just tried to do the best I could and bring energy to my teammates.”

It took about two minutes into the second half for either team to score, but once the Spartans regained their scoring touch it wouldn’t go away. Dunks by Roe and Morgan, then two three-pointers Allen, stretched MSU’s lead even further before a lay-up by Green put the Spartans up by 50 midway through the second half.

A put-back by Roe following his own miss put the Spartans over the century mark with 6:54 remaining. The MSU bench came in during the waning minutes as the Spartans ended the game with all three walk-ons on the floor.

Despite one of easiest wins in recent memory, Izzo said there’s no way the Spartans will come away thinking they’ve solved all their problems. With another game against an seemingly under-matched opponent coming up at 8 p.m. Wednesday against The Citadel at Breslin, Izzo said now is a time for his team to “worry a little more about Michigan State than our opponents.”

“It’s a great win for us … but we haven’t kidded ourselves, we have a long ways to go so we need to take steps in that direction,” Izzo said. “We took one tonight, hopefully we’ll take one Wednesday and then we’ll find out a little bit more about this team.”