Sophomore guard Durrell Summers scored a game-high 26 points and shot 6-for-9 from beyond the three-point line as the No. 7 Spartans came from behind to defeat Ohio State 78-67 at Value City Arena and improve to 16-3 overall and 6-1 in the Big Ten.

“It’s just confidence really; the coaches have confidence in me when I’m having my ups and downs and they’re always sticking with me,” said Summers, who became the seventh different player to lead MSU in scoring this season. “I’m just trying to have confidence in myself whether I’m playing good or bad, and today I just happened to be on one of my ups.”

Summers, who got his third start of the season due to academic reasons with Lucas and senior guard Travis Walton, matched his previous career high of 16 points by halftime.

Head coach Tom Izzo said he believed Summers’ ups and downs could be seeing more ups as the season wears on because of the extra time the sophomore has been spending in the gym.

“What I have liked about Durrell is things have been up and down for him, but he’s talking more, he’s coming in more and he’s kind of learned to agree that he’s not doing some things right,” Izzo said. “If you don’t see it then you can’t correct it, and he’s starting to see it and he’s starting to correct it. He’s only in phase one or two, but he’s definitely making some strides.”

Broken promises

If something seemed out of sorts when MSU went out for Sunday’s opening tip, it was for good reason. For the first time this season, neither Lucas nor Walton started for the Spartans because of academic issues.

“Kalin and Travis struggled, and they made me some promises academically and they just didn’t take care of it,” Izzo said. “(We decided) the first time it would be a start, second time it gets worse.”

Walton said he and Lucas are struggling in the same class to meet some academic goals that they set with Izzo, adding it was “some little stuff” that they didn’t “fully” accomplish. Izzo said he, Lucas and Walton got together and decided to get the problem under wraps so it doesn’t come back to hurt the team later on in the season.

“It is disheartening when outside things are what ruins teams and we just decided to nip it in the bud,” Izzo said.

Ray-gular checkup

It seems as repetitive as a broken record or as much of a sure thing as the sun rising each morning, but here’s the seemingly daily check-in regarding how Morgan is recovering from the flu-like symptoms that have bothered him since Jan. 16.

Morgan had four points, five rebounds and four assists in 21 minutes on Sunday.

“It’s up and down, I don’t know,” said Morgan of how he felt after the game. “It’s weird, this is the weirdest one I’ve been through by far.”