Enter the dancing bear.

Junior forward Draymond Green grabbed the offensive rebound on the missed free throw and laid the ball in as MSU escaped with a 65-62 win against Northwestern.

“With a veteran team, you shouldn’t do that,” MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo told the Spartan Sports Network. “With (junior guard Korie Lucious), our best free-throw shooter is at the line; Kalin, our second-best free-throw shooter was at the line. We did a damn good job defensively most of the way, we just made some mistakes, turned it over a couple of times in critical situations but I should have made some timeout calls earlier. Blame those on me.”

For 37 minutes, the Spartans (10-4 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) dominated the Wildcats. Only a flurry of 3-point shots and a dramatic advantage of free throws kept Northwestern (9-3, 0-2) in the game.

Perhaps it was a sign Green would be a deciding factor when he scored 10 of MSU’s first 14 points and MSU jumped out to a 14-10 lead. Green led the Spartans with 15 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season.

The Spartans used a balanced inside-outside offense to rack up points but the Wildcats stayed in the game with 3-point buckets.
Northwestern shot 16 3-point shots in the first half – making six – as the teams went into the locker room with MSU leading, 35-31. In the first half, the Spartans shot 48 percent field and held Northwestern to 3-for-11 on two-point shots.

“I thought early we could have upped the lead to 10, it just seemed like every time we got going, something happened,” Izzo said.

The Spartans opened up their lead early in the second half but racked up fouls and kept Northwestern in the game on free throws.

The Wildcats had taken 20 free-throw attempts in the game before the Spartans got their first, which created a loud cheer from the Spartans in attendance at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

MSU widened its lead to 63-50 with 3:09 to play and Lucious going to the free-throw line for a one-and-one. But Lucious missed and the Wildcats went on a 12-0 run to cut MSU’s lead to one point with less than 30 seconds to play.

Lucas rolled his ankle on Northwestern’s last basket, but stayed in the game and went to the free-throw line with 14 seconds left before Green saved the Spartans.

The Wildcats were led by forward Drew Crawford’s 17 points and eight rebounds for the game.

The Spartans shot 48 percent for the game with 14 turnovers. MSU outrebounded the Wildcats, 45-33, and scored 30 points in the paint, compared to Northwestern’s 17.

“I think (Green) kind of made up for some goofy turnovers, but that was a big play,” Izzo said of the finish. “He’s the guy we want to go to in that situation. I didn’t think he handled it well with two minutes left, but at the end, he was the guy who came through with the money. We’re going to take the win and get out of here.”