MSU women’s basketball was missing some talent on the court in star junior and Olympic gold medalist in Aerial Powers, but it was no Powers, no problem for head coach Suzy Merchant’s ladies as they handled the Michigan Tech Huskies 74-43 in their lone preseason game.
Merchant said Powers is “a day to day thing,” but junior Tori Jankoska led the Spartans with 21 points on 9-19 shooting. She tallied three 3-pointers and grabbed seven rebounds in 37 minutes. The lack of experience on the court led Merchant to keeping Jankoska on the court the majority of the game.
“We don’t have a lot of experience right now with Aerial not playing right now, so, to me, you got to have a glue guy,” Merchant said. “The one thing that Tori does a good job of is she defends and she can score. Was it ideal to play her 37 minutes? No. But that kid can play those kind of minutes for us.”
A mixture of new faces and returners from injury plan to make up the majority of MSU’s rotation this year, but would be anchored by the returning junior duo of Powers and Jankoska.
One of the returning wounded, Jasmine Hines returned to play her first game since suffering a concussion only eight games into last season. She posted 15 points and 8 rebounds in just 23 minutes, and went a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line.
“It’s almost been a year, it just felt good to be back out there with my teammates and with a lot of the new girls,” Hines said. “We got a lot of things we need to work on but it just felt good to be back out there honestly.”
Another key returnee from an ACL tear is redshirt sophomore Branndais Agee, who saw her first action in over a year. Agee was one of four Spartans in double figures, but played balanced, having 11 points, four rebounds, and three assists.
“I loved her energy,” Merchant said. “I think she had done a really good job for us at both ends of the floor. Now we got to make sure that when she does get tired, we get her a rest, because she is so much better when she is not fatigued.”
The Spartans welcomed back Akyah Taylor, who transferred from MSU to St. Francis for two years, where she scored 706 points last year. She then transferred back to MSU, and in her first action accumulated 15 points, six rebounds, and three assists while shooting 6-8 from the field. Junior college transfer Morgan Green had eight points, eight assists and a steal while taking over the point guard duties for MSU.
The Spartans shot 45.5 percent from three point range and from the field, and mixed quality shooting with stingy defense, forcing 18 turnovers and holding the Huskies to 30.4 percent from the field and only 21.7 percent from three.
MSU opens up their regular season next Sunday against Western Michigan.
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