The Spartans helped cause many of Western Michigan’s 30 turnovers and held the Broncos to 28 percent shooting, beating them 74-51 Sunday at Van Andel Arena.

“One of the things that I’ve been a little disappointed in is how we’ve played on the defensive side of the ball,” Merchant said. “I thought we really focused on that, and I don’t think we played our best offensive game, for sure, but our defense created some offense for us.”

Sophomore forward Lykendra Johnson led the MSU effort, finishing with 21 points, seven rebounds and two steals (2-2). She also held Western Michigan’s Miame Giden to 10 points — six of which came from the free-throw line — on 2-of-9 shooting.

Giden entered the game averaging 18 points per game for the Broncos (1-3).

“She was definitely a spark at both ends of the floor because she was guarding (Giden), who is their best player, and I thought she gave her some problems,” Merchant said.

Despite an early scoring spree by Johnson, who scored 16 of her points in the first half, MSU was deadlocked with the Broncos near the end of the half.

Then, Merchant saw the defensive effort she was looking for.

Giden scored on a layup with 5:47 minutes left in the first half, but the Broncos didn’t make another field goal until Molly Dwyer hit a 3-pointer four minutes into the second half.

It was during the Broncos’ 9:52 field goal drought that the Spartans made their run, improving their lead from two points to 14. Johnson scored four points late in the half, and then a buzzer-beater by junior guard Brittney Thomas put MSU up 10 at the break.

“That’s how our method is anyway. We feed off our defense,” Johnson said. “That’s what we want to do. If we get hyped on defense, we get hyped on offense and we get the job done.”

Senior forward Aisha Jefferson — who played just two minutes in the first half due to foul trouble — scored all 12 of her points in the second half, while senior center Allyssa DeHaan scored five of her seven points in the first few minutes of the second half.

During the field-goal drought, the Broncos had eight turnovers and went 0-for-8 from the field.

“Michigan State has some nice post players, so we expected them to get some points in the paint,” Western Michigan head coach Tasha McDowell said. “What we didn’t want to do was give them easy opportunities and I felt like in transition, we let them shake loose too many times.”

DeHaan had 11 rebounds and five blocks, while senior center Lauren Aitch had nine points.

“It was everybody really making a concerted effort one-on-one and it started there,” Merchant said. “I just liked our intensity a lot more. It wasn’t perfect, certainly, but I thought that was a side of the ball we had to tighten up a little bit.”