“It looks a lot more impressive than the game was,” Izzo said. “We did not play very well; did not do the things defensively (we needed to do), we didn’t rebound very well and the stat sheet looks awesome.”

Wednesday’s win was the 300th in Breslin Center history.

The Spartans (7-2) lost the tip and fell behind early to the Blue Devils (5-3) 9-4 and 22-11.

Blue Devil head coach Howie Dickenman was worried entering the game how his team would handle the game at Breslin Center, he came out pleased.

“I was concerned with us being intimidated by Michigan State,” Dickenman said. “We held our own, played well for 20, 22 minutes of the game. We gave it our best shot. I’ve always been a Michigan State fan, Tom Izzo fan, as always well coached.”

Central Connecticut couldn’t maintain the 11-point lead as junior center Derrick Nix and sophomore guard Keith Appling started a run allowing the Spartans to take a 30-28 lead.

Despite his team lagging, Izzo was pleased at the team Dickenman brought to East Lansing.

“I give them credit, I’m not real pleased with my team, but I am really pleased with Howie’s team,” he said. “They played their tail off. They played hard.”

The Spartans and Blue Devils traded leads a few times before heading into halftime with a 36-34 MSU lead.

MSU struggled to play cohesively in the first half, but freshman guard Travis Trice helped quietly build the second-half lead and finished with 20 points on 6-8 shooting, including 4-4 from 3-point range. Trice also dished out five assists.

“I played alright individually,” Trice said. “As a team we came out kind of flat. Central Connecticut is a good team, we just need to come out more focused.”

Trice was helped by a hodgepodge of Spartans, including 14 points and nine rebounds from senior forward Draymond Green. Freshman guard Branden Dawson scored 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while Nix finished with 13 and six.

Izzo wasn’t too fond of any of his players’ stats, but was happy with Trice, but gave much of the credit to Nix.

“Trice made some shots but I think Nix deserves half the credit for that with the passes he threw out of the post,” Izzo said. “Even though at times he threw too many out.”

With a game at No. 23 Gonzaga looming on Saturday, Green held a team meeting after Izzo was finished with the team. Green told the team every team will give its best effort against MSU, so they have to come with their best.

“Every team is coming at you, regardless of what happened last year, teams are still going to hunt Michigan State,” he said. “I remember last year when we were 14-12 and somebody stormed the court on us. Everybody wants to beat Michigan State.”