For almost 38 minutes Wednesday night, senior guard Durrell Summers looked like he would much rather be on the beaches of Maui than playing in the Lahaina Civic Center.
But with two consecutive 3-pointers in less than one minute, Summers gave No. 2 MSU a 72-68 lead over No. 13 Washington late in the game that the Spartans would never relinquish, ultimiately winning 76-71
The first 3-pointer came on a set play that head coach Tom Izzo called out of a timeout with 2:06 left.
“We have ‘Little Giants’ in basketball too,” Izzo said, referencing the fake field goal the MSU football team ran to beat Notre Dame in overtime on Sept. 18. “And that was ours. We went back to (Summers), we thought it would be open and it was.”
Summers was 1-for-9 from the field before making his only 3-pointers of the night, helping the Spartans (4-1) fight back from a 10-point halftime deficit.
And his heroics couldn’t have come at a better time, as senior guard Kalin Lucas had just gone to the locker room with an apparent knee injury.
Lucas had been MSU’s main source of offense in the second half, scoring 18 of his career-high 29 points in the final 20 minutes.
But with 2:46 left, the Huskies’ Matthew Bryan-Amaning fell on Lucas’ left knee, causing him to remain on the floor in pain.
That’s when Summers took over the game, before Lucas returned to make two free throws and seal the 76-71 comeback victory.
“We did overcome that deficit, and that showed some character,” Izzo said. “I said it would be a character game, so we’ll take a character win.”
MSU was coming off 70-67 loss to unranked Connecticut, and in the first half of Wednesday’s game, it appeared the Spartans were going to drop another one in Maui.
After Washington (3-2) took an early 5-2 lead, Lucas hit two 3-pointers with baskets from sophomore center Garrick Sherman and junior forward Draymond Green mixed in between, as MSU built a 12-9 lead about four minutes into the game.
Also playing solid post defense and rebounding well, Sherman added another layup to help the Spartans to a 17-11 lead.
But the rest of the first half was all Washington.
Going on a 26-9 run, the Huskies jumped out to their biggest lead of the game at 39-29 with about three minutes left in a first half that saw the Spartans turn the ball over 14 times.
Those 14 turnovers led to 17 Washington points, while the Huskies turned it over only five times.
The ball-handling problems for MSU were not limited to a select few players.
Green and senior guard Mike Kebler, who played one first-half minute, were the only Spartans who saw the court without committing a turnover in the first 20 minutes.
MSU played even with Washington for the final three minutes of the first half, as the Huskies took a 44-34 lead into the break.
Both teams traded baskets early in the second half, but the Spartans quickly climbed back in the game, thanks in large part to six consecutive points by Sherman to start a 16-6 MSU run.
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Sherman finished the game 10 points and five rebounds.
Capped by two consecutive Lucas jumpers, the run gave the Spartans a 51-50 lead, their first since they led, 25-23, with nine minutes left in the first half.
After falling behind again, Lucas reclaimed the lead for MSU at 64-63 on an acrobatic layup with less than seven minutes to go.
However, Washington bounced back to lead 68-66 before Summers, who finished with 12 points, finally stepped up.
“We went back to ‘Rel, and thank God he made it,” Izzo said.
Green added 12 points of his own, led the Spartans with six rebounds and helped limit the Spartans’ turnovers in the second half.
MSU leaves Maui winning two of its three games, and although the Spartans have yet to play their best, Izzo believes he and his team should be able to get things fixed.
“Good news is,” Izzo said. “We got a lot of things we can get better at that I think are correctable.”
