“It’s amazing,” Schiffauer said. “I love the team, I love how hard everybody’s working, and being a fifth year senior and going through stuff. It feels great to be able to do it my senior year and actually be on the floor for that stuff.”

Schiffauer had seven points, eight rebounds and six assists in 24 minutes of play, and said she’ll do whatever it takes to help the team win, even if that means being a jack of all trades type of player.

“I’m not like a LeBron James type of player,” she said. “I just try to be a leader out there and do what I can to help everybody out. You have to do what you have to do for the team to win.”

MSU had a season-best 53.2 percent shooting percentage, and sophomore forward Becca Mills set a new season-high with 14 points and has started to get out of the shooting slump she said she has been in for the early part of this season and the end of last year.

“At the beginning of the year, I was kind of in a shooter’s funk, kind of thinking to much,” Mills said. “I just went to the gym and kept shooting. The last game kind of helped me get there and I’m going to be fine from now on.”

She said to help her out, she went to the gym and just shot, with no thought of whether she made it or missed and used the repetition to clear her mind.

“When you’re in a shooting funk, you have to shoot your way out of it,” she said. “A lot of it is removing the emotional part of it and not thinking about your misses.”

Sophomore center Jasmine Hines was one of five Spartans to score in double figures, with a career-high 19 points and six rebounds, but said although one player might shine on any given night, it’s still a team effort.

“All of us work hard and we’re ready to face the adversity,” Hines said. “We’ve all been through the ups and downs. Everybody that plays has been through not playing games. We all just know what we have to do and how we do it.”

MSU improved on their Big Ten-best 8.3 rebound margin by owning the boards over the Panthers 49-29, and Hines said it’s been a major goal for them, especially with sophomore center Madison Williams out for the year with a torn ACL.

“Every game, we try to make rebounding a big deal,” she said. “We’ve just been focusing on that lately and we’ve done a good job executing and we’ve got to keep that up.”

Head coach Suzy Merchant said having junior forward Annalise Pickrel able to rebound once again has improved that statistic, but that the play on the boards by the guards is where they are stressing.

“We’ve challenged the guards to be better rebounders,” Merchant said “Sometimes it’s hard to box out and pursue, so we’ve been really aggressive with our guards. (Senior guard) Jasmine Thomas is such a good athlete that it’s kind of a waste if she doesn’t get in on the ball and start getting after it.”

Thomas tied her season high with 7 rebounds in the game.

With trips to take on Oakland and No. 23 Dayton this week, the Spartans have a difficult road ahead of them as they hope to remain unbeaten, and Merchant said it’s all about keeping the team in the right mindset.

“We’re never as good as you think you are, but you’re never as bad as you think you are when you lose,” she said. “For us it’s about keeping an even temperament. There’s a lot more games to be played. We’ve got two tough ones this week. We have to beat the best.”