The layup was the finishing touch on one of the most impressive outings of his career, and Lucas just wanted to make sure everyone watching was aware of what Haskins had just learned: Kalin Lucas is back, and he’s better than ever.

“I thought he played phenomenal,” head coach Tom Izzo told the Spartan Sports Network after the game. “Played pretty good defense, had opportunities on offense and played under control. I thought he played very well.”

Lucas finished with a career-high 28 points, carrying the Spartans as they struggled to an opening-round win in the 2010 Maui Invitational Tournament.

Through a first half that saw MSU get badly outplayed for the most part, Lucas was the lone bright spot with 14 points and two rebounds.

After junior forward Draymond Green hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to open up the scoring, the next 13 minutes belonged to Chaminade.

Led by lightning-quick point guard Steven Bennett’s nine points, the Silverswords led the Spartans, 21-17, heading into a timeout with 11:02 left in the first half.

Chaminade also was helped by 7-foot center Mamadou Diarra, who helped the host-school outrebound MSU, 11-3, in the first nine minutes.

Chaminade continued to outplay the Spartans for the next few minutes, extending its lead to as much as 8 on two separate occasions.

But that’s when Lucas, who was playing in his third regular season game since rupturing his Achilles’ in last year’s NCAA Tournament, began to take over.

Down 33-25, MSU went on a 14-4 run to take a 39-37 lead — its first since leading 17-16 early in the game — at about the 2-minute mark of the first half.

On the run, Lucas scored 10 of the 14 points, while the other four came from junior forward Delvon Roe.

The duo of Roe and Lucas combined for the Spartans’ last 20 points throughout the last nine-plus minutes of the first half, as the two teams went into the break tied at 39.

In the early stages of the second half, Chaminade was able to keep hanging around and go back-and-forth with MSU. And with about 16 minutes left in the game, the Silverswords held a 50-45 lead over the top-seeded Spartans, thanks to some hot shooting from long distance.

“Give credit to Chaminade,” Izzo said. “They had four shooters, they made shots and they played well.”

Silverswords forward Shane Hanson knocked down three 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the second half on his way to 15 points, all coming from behind the arc.

However, sparked by a Lucas 3-pointer, MSU went on an 18-3 run to take the biggest lead of the game at 63-53.

While the run was started by Lucas, it was the Spartans’ bench, particularly junior guard Korie Lucious and freshman guard Keith Appling that kept it going.

The two guards hit back-to-back 3-pointers and connected on an alley-oop from Lucious during the spurt.

MSU never let Chaminade get to within less than seven points the rest of the way as the Spartans held on in their first game in Maui since 2005.

“We had a better second half,” Izzo said. “But I was disappointed in how we played.”

Lucas’ 28 points led all scorers, while Lucious added 13 and Green had 10.

As a team, MSU was red hot for most of the game, shooting 30-for-57 (52.6 percent) from the field and 8-for-15 (53.3 percent) from deep.

The Silverswords, who shot 10-for-27 (37 percent) from behind the long line, were led by Bennett’s 20 points and 11 assists.

Green and Roe led the Spartans with 10 and eight rebounds, respectively, but MSU was outrebounded by Chaminade, 35-30.

“Defensively, we didn’t step up on things,” Izzo said. “And we didn’t rebound the ball very well.”

Next up for the Spartans is a rematch of the 2009 Final Four game against Connecticut at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

MSU won that semifinal, 82-73, in Detroit, but Izzo said his team will need to pick it up if the Spartans want to beat the Huskies again.

“We’re going to have to play better, that’s for sure,” Izzo said. “We’ve got a lot of basketball yet tonight to get ready for tomorrow.”