Staring down second place with two tough games to play following a heartbreaking 54-51 loss to Wisconsin on Sunday, MSU women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant said her team would have to be much better if it wanted a chance to win the Big Ten regular season championship.
“Going into Wisconsin, we were well aware of needing that victory,” Merchant said. “We just have to have people step up and perform and be consistent. We just didn’t have that on the offensive end.”
With the loss, the Spartans (19-8 overall, 12-4 in conference) are now in second place in the Big Ten — one game behind Ohio State — and are looking at games against Minnesota (18-8, 10-5) and Purdue (19-8, 12-4), both teams with a shot at the title.
Redshirt freshman forward Lykendra Johnson, who led MSU against Wisconsin with 12 points and six assists, said after Sunday’s game that she would use the loss to the Badgers as motivation for the rest of the season. Merchant said other players need to follow Johnson’s example.
“I think she’s been our most consistent performer,” Merchant said. “We just need people to play with her and with her same intensity. Then execution — she just finishes. Some kids we have on our team are not finishing.”
If the Spartans win both of their remaining games, they would earn a No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. MSU would need Ohio State to lose against either Wisconsin or Penn State this week to claim a share of the Big Ten title.
“We understand that we’re at home but we also understand that we have two tough opponents,” Merchant said. “If it doesn’t motivate you to want to play in front of your home crowd and you still have a chance to play for something, pending outcomes, then they probably shouldn’t be in a Spartan uniform. I think they’re well aware of it.”
MSU, which faces Minnesota on Thursday, must shore up its renewed turnover issue if it plans to take the conference title.
In the first meeting with the Golden Gophers, MSU committed 25 turnovers, mostly due to relentless pressure from Minnesota. This time, without sophomore point guard Brittney Thomas, the Spartans will have to be much more careful with the ball, Merchant said.
“I think the biggest thing everybody has to do is quit being nonchalant with the ball,” Merchant said.
The importance of winning the final two games of the season goes beyond just the Big Ten championship. The Spartans are also playing for seeding in the NCAA Tournament, the first two rounds of which will be hosted in East Lansing. The Spartans are looking for a high seed to have a better chance to make it past the first two rounds.
“We’ve been playing really good basketball,” Merchant said. “They always look at down the stretch. They look at your wins. They look at a lot of different things. They don’t take anything for certainty. We need to perform.”
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