Senior center Adreian Payne shoots the ball while guarded by Delaware forward Carl Baptiste on March 20, 2014, at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Wash., during the Spartans' first game in the NCAA Tournament. MSU won, 93-78 . Betsy Agosta/The State News
SPOKANE, Wash., — Adreian Payne scored 23 points as the fourth-seeded MSU men’s basketball team jumped out to a 44-33 lead over Delaware at the half.
Despite averaging nearly 80 points per game, Delaware was held to just 33 on 11-of-30 shooting, most of those shots from behind the arc.
It wasn’t the start the Spartans wanted, as three of the first four field goals Delaware made were from long range.
But Gary Harris, Denzel Valentine and Travis Trice answered with three-pointers of their own.
From then on, it was the Payne show.
MSU went on a 12-0 run to push their lead to 15 points. All the points scored in that run were scored by Payne.
After Payne went to the bench, the Blue Hens went on an 11-0 run to cut the lead to seven points.
The Spartans committed 10 turnovers in the half and Delaware scored 11 points off those turnovers.
Fouls trouble again haunted MSU in the first half, as Harris, Valentine, Schilling and Dawson all picked up two fouls in the half and sat for extended periods.
Payne got the Spartans back on track when he made his fourth three-pointer of the game with just under two minutes left.
Devon Saddler was the leading scorer for Delaware with 12 points. Other than Payne, Harris added 10 points, while Dawson grabbed six rebounds.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
