Junior guards Brittney Thomas and Cetera Washington, along with senior center Allyssa DeHaan, hit three of MSU’s school-record 13 3-pointers in the opening minutes and the team never looked back, dropping the Eagles 94-71 at Breslin Center.

“We were going to let certain kids shoot who haven’t had good 3-point percentages or haven’t looked to shoot too many threes,” Smesko said. “And those kids, right out of the game, hit them one after another, so you could kind of see in our team like, ‘what happened?’”

MSU head coach Suzy Merchant knew what Florida Gulf Coast was going to do defensively and immediately recognized how important guard play would be.

“It started out with Brittney, then Cetera hit one, then Allyssa hit one and that’s what we needed,” Merchant said. “We needed to show people that we do have shooters and we can be aggressive. I liked that mentality from our guard play.”

The Spartans got off to one of, if not the best, start they’ve ever gotten off to under Merchant. The Spartans jumped out to leads of 13-0 and 27-5 in the first nine minutes with five different players hitting 3-pointers. MSU went into halftime up 57-27 after Thomas scored seven of MSU’s last eight points in the half.

It was a sign of progress for the Spartans, who beat No. 8 Xavier on Wednesday. After beating then-No. 4 North Carolina on Dec. 3, the Spartans responded with a stinker, losing 68-63 to Indiana.

“We definitely knew we had to pick it up,” senior center Lauren Aitch said. “After we beat a big team, we can’t fluff off … today we came out and performed.”

Thomas, who hit a career-high three triples in the game, took the Eagles’ defensive set as a personal challenge to step up her game. She finished with 13 points, a season high.

The Spartans shot 71 percent (22-of-31) in the first half, including 9-of-12 from behind the long line.

But as the second half got past the opening minutes, the game’s tide turned. MSU went up 67-34 on a jumper by junior forward Kalisha Keane with 14:57 to play. In less than five minutes, the Eagles wilted that lead to 15 points on an incredible run of 3-pointers, going 4-for-4 during the stretch. But it came crashing down after their first miss in five tries. Senior forward Aisha Jefferson got a pass and scored on the fast break and was fouled, putting MSU up 18.

“I don’t know if we ever made it close enough to really get anybody scared,” Smesko said. “I’m not sure we quite got to that point, but I think that was a play that if it didn’t end our chances of some kind of miraculous comeback it was close to ending our chances of one.”

Merchant called timeout during Florida Gulf Coast’s run, telling her team she was not happy with its defensive intensity. The Eagles were getting open shots, but after, the Spartans responded, closing out the perimeter much more efficiently.

“We were jumping back instead of jumping to the ball and every time we did that they would either backcut us or step out and hit a three,” Merchant said. “We didn’t play defense as well as we could have or as well as we played in the first half.”

With so many of MSU’s games this season having come down to the final minutes, the only drama in the waning moments was if MSU was going to set the school record for 3-pointers made in a game. It was close, but sophomore guard Porsche Poole did the trick with 1:22 left.

Six players scored in double figures for MSU, led by freshman guard Jasmine Thomas with 15 points, tying a career high. She did set a career high with nine assists. Following her was Aitch (14), Brittney Thomas (13), Keane (12), DeHaan (11) and Poole (10). Sophomore forward Lykendra Johnson added 10 rebounds.

In all, seven players hit 3-pointers for MSU. Ten players played at least 13 minutes.

“It’s always exciting to see not only balance in scoring, but balance in minutes,” Merchant said.