A 27-10 Iowa run ended the first half on a sour note for the Spartans. However, the play of junior guard Denzel Valentine and senior guard Travis Trice transformed the men's basketball team's fortunes in the final 20 minutes.
MSU (11-5 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) opened the second half on a 25-9 run to defeat Iowa (11-5 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) on the road in a comeback win, 75-61. Trice drained seven 3-pointers en route to a 25 point, four assist performance, and Valentine finished with 18 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
Senior forward Branden Dawson added 14 points and 15 rebounds.
MSU made eight-of-nine 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes and 12-of-17 overall.
The Spartans controlled the game early, holding an 18-12 lead at the 12:10 mark.
From there, everything unraveled.
Iowa senior center Gabriel Olaseni, who finished with 18 points and four rebounds, spurred a 9-0 Hawkeye run to give his team a 25-18 lead. Iowa got MSU's big men in foul trouble early, and it led to easy opportunities at the rim for the opposing team
Iowa's 17-point swing was helped by missed opportunities by MSU. Dawson missed several attempts at the rim, and the Spartans had good looks on jump shots that ultimately didn't connect.
MSU took a 39-28 deficit into halftime. From there, Valentine and Trice took turns guiding the Spartans' comeback effort.
The second period began with another missed layup from Dawson, but Trice nailed a 3-pointer for MSU's first points of the half. It was a preview of what was to come.
Valentine proceeded to take over, scoring or assisting on nine consecutive Spartan points to cut the lead to 44-42.
He responded to an Iowa 3-pointer with one of his own, nailed a turnaround jumper near the rim, fed Dawson for a dunk, and hit a pulll-up jumper in transition to put the Spartans back in the game with 13:54 to play.
After finding a trailing Dawson for a huge alley-oop slam to tie the game at 46, Trice took the reins from Valentine with a personal 11-3 run. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Trice then gave the Spartans a 53-48 lead with 10:02 to play.
Trice stretched his personal scoring run to eight consecutive with a fallaway jumper from the corner to stretch the lead to seven.
The senior guard then found himself all alone in the corner and made Iowa pay with another 3-pointer, his seventh of the night.
Junior guard Bryn Forbes found himself alone in the same corner on MSU's next offensive possession and received a feed from junior forward Matt Costello from the opposite corner, nailing the 3-pointer to give the Spartans a 61-51 advantage.
Valentine, after getting blocked, recovered and drained a 3-pointer late in the game. Dawson converted a layup to push the lead to 15, icing the game with 4:05 to play.
For good measure, Trice assisted a Valentine 3-pointer with 3:20 remaining on the clock to give MSU its largest lead of the night, 72-55.
The Spartans will return to action on Sunday, hosting Northwestern at Breslin Center for a noon matchup.
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