“That’s where we lost the game at,” Green said pointing at the numbers. “At that mark — that 8-4 minute mark — I think we were up two, they went on a run, and that’s where we lost the game. “

With a little more than eight minutes to play in the first half, MSU (12-7 overall, 4-3 Big Ten) actually found itself up three points, 22-19, despite white hot-shooting from Purdue guard E’Twaun Moore and the rest of the Boilermakers (17-3, 6-1).

But for the next four minutes, until Spartans head coach Tom Izzo called a timeout with 3:58 remaining in the half, Purdue did whatever it desired.

The run started with a 3-point play by forward JuJuan Johnson and ended with a jumpshot from Moore.

In between, the Boilermakers converted on five straight layups, and when it was all said and done, Purdue had outscored MSU, 15-4, to take 34-26 lead and total control of the game.

“We didn’t check in that run, and that got it going,” Green said. “We got it down to six a couple times, and we couldn’t turn the corner. But that stretch; can’t have that stretch.”

Before the Boilermakers’ run, the Spartans had managed to keep pace with Moore and his running mates in a ruckus Mackey Arena.

Moore scored the first eight points, including two 3-pointers for Purdue, but thanks to MSU’s own good shooting early and an advantage on the offensive boards, the Boilermakers couldn’t quite pull away.

Then, with 10:29 left in the half and the game tied at 16, freshman guard Keith Appling, who has emerged as the Spartans’ best perimeter defender, picked up his third foul. Appling sat the rest of the half, as Appling’s primary assignment, point guard Lewis Jackson scored eight points on four layups, and Purdue took a 41-31 lead into the break.

However, the star of the first half was Moore, who scored 19 points on 75 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes.

“We didn’t guard him in the first half,” Izzo said of Moore. “Give E’Twaun credit, he made shots, but there was a ghost guarding him.”

Meanwhile, MSU senior guard Kalin Lucas shot 1-for-9 from the field in the first half and scored five points before finishing the game with 11 on 3-for-16.

Izzo said it was a “shame” to see Lucas miss a number of shots he often makes, and Lucas said it was just a “bad shooting night.”

”There were times I got to the paint and had good looks as far as me trying to pull up going to the rack,” Lucas said. “I had great looks, they just didn’t fall in.”

Falling behind by as much as 14 points early in the second half, the Spartans managed to cut the lead to 54-47 on a 3-point play by junior forward Delvon Roe with almost 13 minutes to play. But after a few unlucky bounces that led to offensive rebounds and scores, Purdue was back up, 59-47.

Again, MSU was able to fight back to a 6-point deficit, with exactly 10 minutes to play, before the Boilermakers increased the lead back to 10 points and never let it get closer than eight the rest of the way.

Izzo said after the game that none of the bounces seemed to go the Spartans’ way in the second half.

Although senior guard Durrell Summers agreed with Izzo, he also said the Spartans had a chance to get back in the game but couldn’t capitalize.

“We can’t complain about it,” Summers said. “There’s still some plays down the stretch and some stops that we had to get.”

The game was put away by Johnson, who scored 20 points in addition Moore’s 16.

MSU was led by Green, who notched a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

For the Spartans, it was the second game in a row their opponent shot better than 50 percent from the field while making an array of difficult shots.

At 4-3 in the Big Ten, MSU is not where it wanted to be at the beginning of the season, but Summers, who scored 11 points, said there’s only one thing he and the Spartans can do to turn it around and get their share of favorable bounces.

“Just keep going hard,” Summers said. “As a team, if we keep going hard and stick together, things will eventually go our way.”