The Spartans had 17 turnovers and shot 56.3 percent from the free-throw line, continuing a trend from the Maui Invitational last week.

“I’m going to go to sleep tonight thinking about turnovers,” men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo said. “We’ve done a very, very, very poor job turning the ball over, and that kind of negates some of the good things we’re doing.”

After a comeback victory against No. 13 Washington in the third-place game of the Maui Invitational on Nov. 24, Izzo said he normally expects his team to play poorly in the first game back.

But after what Izzo called three exceptional practices, the Spartans came out flat, turning the ball over 10 times in the first half.

“We actually had three great practices, really good practices in fact,” Izzo said. “We had more energy in the practices than we did today. … I’d have to say it took me a little bit by surprise, which disappoints me, I guess, because it means we’re not as mature as I think or hoped we would be.”

After opening an 8-point lead midway through the first half, Tennessee Tech (0-3) got back into the game and cut the lead to two with 4:55 to play in the first half.

Leading 18-16, the Spartans finished the half on a 14-4 run that was highlighted by dunks from senior guard Durrell Summers and freshman center Adreian Payne to go into the locker room leading, 32-20.

“To beat an elite team on the road, you have to do a few things, one of which is take care of the basketball, and the other is make shots,” Tennessee Tech head coach Mike Sutton said. “Players make plays and teams win championships and we had to make more plays.”

Despite the offensive inefficiency, the Spartans didn’t let it affect their defensive play as they forced 12 turnovers and held the Golden Eagles to 30 percent shooting in the first half.

The Spartans picked up where they left off as the second half began. Summers scored nine points in the first four minutes of the half as MSU opened up a 43-23 lead with 16:10 to play.

Summers scored a game-high 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting, including making all three of his 3-point shots.

“I think our confidence is fine, other than that we’re still just learning,” Summers said. “We took from Maui a learning experience and try to start and finish games and keep our energy at a high level.”

MSU didn’t look back the rest of the way, winning, 73-55.

Tennessee Tech was led by guard Zach Bailey, who scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds. The Spartans outrebounded the Golden Eagles, 38-33, something players said was unacceptable.

Sophomore center Derrick Nix, who didn’t travel to Maui because of personal issues, rejoined the team late last week and played five minutes in the second half.

Izzo said the situation with Nix isn’t remedied overnight and that Nix still has issues to deal with.

Nix said he watched each of MSU’s games in Maui and talked with players while they were on the trip.

“I let my team down in a big way,” Nix said. “I did it by myself, nobody did anything (for) me. I let my team down.”

The Spartans will travel to Durham, N.C., on Wednesday to face defending national champion and No. 1 Duke.

“If we do learn to respect (turnovers), we’ll play well,” Izzo said. “If we don’t learn to respect it, we’ll get embarrassed.”