Columbus, Ohio — The No. 1-seed MSU men’s basketball team ran away with its first game of the 2012 NCAA Tournament against No. 16-seed LIU Brooklyn, 89-67.
Just as anticipated the game was high-paced, moving up and down the court at a fast clip.
Spartans win first tourney game, 89-67
Green records rare second-career NCAA Tournament triple double
The Blackbirds (25-9) jumped out to a 9-4 lead, but the Spartans (28-7) came back with a 6-0 run, capped by a junior center Derrick Nix hookshot to take the lead.
A free throw by the Blackbirds tied it up at 10, but the Spartans took off on another run.
The Blackbirds were right back in the game a few minutes later, but every time they approached tying the game, the Spartans extended the lead again.
“I didn’t feel we started out under the game plan that we wanted, and the game plan was we wanted to go inside,” head coach Tom Izzo said. “We wanted to start out guarding somebody. We didn’t do a very good at that.”
The teams entered halftime with the Spartans leading 42-37.
After a bench warning to MSU at 55-48, the Spartans began to pull away with just more than 11 minutes to play, taking advantage of the height inside.
“Halftime we talked about, ‘We’re going to get it in there or I’m going to some guys,’” Izzo said. “Where we didn’t execute the game plan well in the first ten minutes very well, I thought we did an incredible job in the second half.”
Senior forward Draymond Green led the Spartans with a triple-double of 24 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
Near the end of the blowout, Green looked for his 10th assist and got it with 1:44 left when senior guard Brandon Wood nailed a midrange jumper.
Green said he’s more concerned about a win than his stats — noting last season’s NCAA Tournament triple double came with a loss — but it was good coming off a sub-par performance Sunday against Ohio State.
“I think that helps me out, getting me closer to playing at the level that I’m capable of playing,” Green said. “And just it’s the right time of year to be playing good.”
And MSU feed Nix, who scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds. And he did it against the Blackbirds best player and the Northeast Conference Player of the Year Julian Boyd.
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Sophomore center Adreian Payne played well too, finishing with 16 points and seven rebounds.
LIU Brooklyn head coach Jim Ferry was impressed by the Spartans’ inside play.
“They’re in the Big Ten, they need centers like that,” Ferry said. “They’re really skilled, that’s why they’re a No. 1 seed.”
The center duo and Green led a Spartan team that scored almost as many points in the paint as LIU Brooklyn did in the game — 62 points in the paint.
Izzo told his team the inside would be a key against the quick-minded Blackbirds.
“We tried to pound them down low and get them in foul trouble,” Nix said. “We got it down there, they dig, they dug in the post, so we tried to kick it out for open threes, when they played us one-on-one, we just tried to score on them.”
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The Spartans will face No. 9-seed St. Louis at about 2:45 p.m. Sunday.
