Last Sunday, it was the buzzer-beater to defeat Maryland.

Friday night, it was a floating jumper with 1:31 to play that put the No. 5-seed MSU men’s basketball team up four in its 59-52 win over No. 9-seed Northern Iowa.

Lucious not only hit a key shot, but he played a complete basketball game and was all over the stat sheet. Lucious finished with 10 points, four assists, a career-high four steals and just two turnovers in 39 minutes, also a career high.

Lucious has become more than the replacement for junior guard Kalin Lucas. He’s writing his own history.

“I want to give credit to my teammates for having the confidence in me to go out there and play the best basketball I can,” Lucious said. “It’s a good experience for me, stepping in, playing 39 minutes and running a team as a point guard. It was just a great experience.

“But I have to give credit to my teammates for helping me out and making things easy for me.”

Against a stingy Northern Iowa defense that forced five turnovers from Kansas’ star guard Sherron Collins, Lucious played cool, calm and collected the entire game, adding a little dose of Spartan toughness.

“Korie is a playground guy. There’s one thing about my two point guards: Toughness and cockiness, they got them both,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “I mean that in a positive way. I can say a lot of things about him but I use the word ‘wimp’ a lot in my practices but not with those two guys. They’re not wimpy. They don’t lack confidence.”

When Lucas missed time due to a sprained ankle earlier in the season, Lucious played some of his worst basketball of the season, including six turnovers in a loss at Illinois.

But the second time around, Lucious played with a new confidence that comes from his teammates.

“Korie, he’s been in big-game situations but he hasn’t really had to run a team by himself,” sophomore forward Draymond Green said. “That’s a huge, huge responsibility. Kalin’s been helping him out, but he has just the heart and the will to do it.”

Lucas said he and Lucious talk every day, but also said there wasn’t anything different Lucious had to do to be successful.

“The type of player Korie is, you don’t need to be saying things to him, ‘Do this, do that,’” Lucas said. “I just told him, ‘You already know what you’ve got to do, just play you’re game and run the team.’”

Without Lucas, it’s been full-steam ahead for the Spartans, who have put their full confidence in the Milwaukee, Wisc., native and hope to ride him to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

“He didn’t take chances, wasn’t reaching, wasn’t gambling,” Izzo said of Lucious’ performance. “He knew every call. Every play he was yelling them out to the other guys. He did everything I could ask from him.”

Chris Vannini is a State News men’s basketball reporter. He can be reached at vanninic@msu.edu.