Junior guard Denzel Valentine and senior forward Branden Dawson each have eight points, and Dawson also has seven rebounds and a pair of steals.

Freshman guard Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn, who got the start over senior guard Travis Trice, sunk his first jumper of the season early in the first half. He found junior guard Bryn Forbes on the wing for a 3-pointer a few possessions later to give the Spartans a 9-2 lead.

The Spartans were sharp defensively, holding Indiana to 2-of-14 shooting through the first two media timeouts.

Indiana junior guard Yogi Ferrell, pestered by Nairn throughout the half, made his first bucket at the 12:40 mark to snap a 12-0 MSU run.

Freshman forward Marvin Clark Jr. entered the game midway through the half and immediately made his presence felt, grabbing two offensive rebounds to set up a layup by Valentine, and sinking a jumper on the following possession to give the Spartans a 17-4 lead.

Trice lobbed to sophomore forward Gavin Schilling in transition for a highlight-reel dunk on MSU's next offensive possession to push the lead to 15.

Indiana whistled a timeout to silence the crowd and reeled off seven consecutive points before a free throw by Trice. Forbes drained his second 3-pointer on the next possession to push the lead back to double digits.

After a score from Indiana freshman forward Emmit Holt, the Spartans completed a sequence that might have put the game away for good. Dawson dunked the ball in transition, and Valentine followed a corner miss from Trice with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Dawson stole the ball and completed an even louder fastbreak dunk to give the Spartans a 30-15 lead with 4:06 left in the half.

Indiana snapped MSU's 9-0 run with a pair of free throws from Blackmon Jr., but it didn't matter as Valentine found Dawson for a lob a few seconds later. The lob came out of a half court set, a rare sighting from a transition-happy MSU team.