Then came the party.

MSU head coach Tom Izzo and the MSU men’s basketball program followed the No. 8 Spartans (25-5 overall, 15-3 Big Ten) regular season finale with the traditional Senior Day ceremonies for the team’s four seniors and also raised the 2009 Big Ten Championship banner to the Breslin rafters.

“As you know … I’ve had some rough times with that banner and I did what I’ve said to my players everyday — there’s a right way and a wrong way,” said Izzo, whose Spartans became the first team to win the Big Ten by four games since 1985. “When it’s all said and done, I just decided even though there’s been days I’ve been madder with things that happened back in the Wisconsin game than with things that have happened on the court, the right thing was that these players and our fans had the right to share it with us.”

Mainly due to the constant pushing of MSU Athletics Director Mark Hollis, Izzo said he decided to forget about botched banner ceremonies of the past.

It turned out to be the right decision, as the win, the banner and the Senior Day ceremony was the perfect way to end a career at Breslin Center, senior guard Travis Walton said.

“For us to win the way we did, winning by four games, is even better,” Walton said in the locker room afterward, with the net from the hoop hanging around his neck. “We take our hats off to our coaches and our fans and everyone who supported us during our ups and downs and we got it done, but we have more to get done, too.”

The main reason MSU got the win Sunday was because of Walton’s halftime speech. With MSU down 31-29, Walton called out his teammates, saying they were getting out-scrapped by the Boilermakers, much like the team was during MSU’s 72-54 loss at Purdue on Feb. 17.

Walton’s speech got through to his teammates, who held the Boilermakers (22-9, 11-7) to 19 percent shooting in the second half and 28 percent overall.

Sophomore guard Kalin Lucas led the Spartans offensively with 21 points, while senior center Goran Suton posted his fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Freshman forward Delvon Roe also had nine points and eight rebounds and was a main cog in the Spartans’ crucial second-half run.

Roe scored five straight points and had a huge block on Purdue’s Nemanja Calasan as Purdue went on a five-minute scoring drought and MSU took a 10 point lead, 45-35, with about seven minutes to go.

“I just went out there and I didn’t want to let (the seniors) leave the gym without a victory,” Roe said. “They’ve done so much for this program and for themselves throughout their careers here that it would be a shame for them to walk off the court after a loss and I thought I could do a little more by crashing the offensive glass and making a lot of defensive plays.”

The Spartans were up by as many as 12, but both teams entered the double-bonus with about five minutes remaining. Purdue moved back within six points, causing MSU to call a timeout before the under-four minute media timeout.

MSU made just one field goal the rest of the way but shot 13-for-15 from the free throw line in the last five minutes to pull away.

E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson led Purdue with 12 points, while Robbie Hummel had eight. The Boilermakers also held MSU to 35 percent shooting, but the Spartans out-rebounded them 50-32.

The Spartans return to action at next weekend’s Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis from Thursday-Sunday.

The tournament’s No. 1 seed, the Spartans get a first-round bye before playing at noon Friday against the winner of Thursday’s No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup.