Junior guard Bryn Forbes continued his hot shooting, making his first two three-pointers of the game. Going back to Wednesday’s game at Notre Dame, Forbes made nine consecutive shots before finally missing a three early in the second half. He did not hesitate to pull the trigger, unlike in recent games.

“I’m just trying to get good shots,” Forbes said. “(On) some of the shots I’ve been kind of conservative. I haven’t taken some shots I was open on.”

MSU (6-3) made it a point to attack the paint early, working the ball into both sophomore forward Gavin Schilling and junior forward Matt Costello. Costello was the first Spartan to hit double digits in scoring and finished with a career-high 15 points off the bench.

“Whether I come off the bench or start…I’m gonna get a chance to play and just try to take my chances and do the best I can with them,” Costello said.

With UAPB sitting in a two-three zone, MSU worked the ball inside-out with ease, creating wide open shots along the perimeter. The Spartans shot 9-of-17 from three-point range, led by Forbes, who connected on 4-of-7 shots from distance.

“Moving the ball, especially against the zone, that’s a big thing,” Costello said. “We did a really good job in the first half, second half we sucked.”

Coming out of halftime with a 54-20 lead, the second half was never really a contest for MSU. Scoring did slow down for the Spartans, and UAPB outscored a sluggish MSU 19-13 by the 10:11 mark in the half. The Golden Lions scored 32 points to MSU’s 31 in the second half, but coming from so far behind, those points didn’t really swing the game.

“The second half, (we) just came out and didn’t have the killer instinct to do what you gotta do,” Izzo said. “Give Arkansas-Pine Bluff credit…Those kids could have quit at halftime and they didn’t.”

MSU was sloppy with the ball in the second half, committing 13 turnovers. After UAPB continued to trim MSU’s lead, freshman forward Marvin Clark stole the ball on the defensive end and finished in transition with a two-handed slam, getting MSU’s lead back up to 30 points with 2:03 remaining.

“That’s one thing we really gotta work on, continuing to finish out games,” Schilling said of his team’s second half effort. “We just gotta finish out a game..one hundred percent effort no matter who it is.”