The No. 6 MSU men's basketball team (24-5, 11-5 Big Ten) defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions (15-14, 6-10) Sunday afternoon from Breslin Center, 88-57.
Four players finished in double-figures for the Spartans, led by senior MSU guard Denzel Valentine, who finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while senior guard Bryn Forbes added 15 points.
Freshman forward Deyonta Davis finished with 15 points and five rebounds for MSU and senior forward Matt Costello wound up with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Both Costello and Davis helped MSU dominate on the inside, to the tune of a 51-33 rebounding advantage.
"Our guys on the inside came to play," MSU head basketball coach Tom Izzo said. "Those guys today, they played like men. And (Gavin) Schilling got a couple man rebounds. And that's the difference. We play like that inside, our guards will be good enough."
Penn State sophomore guard Shep Garner was one of the lone bright spots for the Nittany Lions, as he finished Sunday afternoon's contest with 22 points.
Both teams got off to a sluggish start. At the 11:30 mark of the first half, MSU was shooting just 5-of-18 from the field while Penn State was held to a modest 3-of-15 shooting. The Spartans led at that point, 11-6.
From there, the Spartans seemingly caught fire, using a 17-3 run during the next three-plus minutes to build a 28-9 lead with 8:19 to go in the first half.
MSU didn't look back from there, and things continued to go south for Penn State. At the 4:53 mark of the first half, Nittany Lion head coach Pat Chambers received two technical fouls for arguing foul calls and was tossed from the game with his team down 35-18.
"These kids work so hard for us, for myself and my staff and for Penn State that we have to continue to fight ," an emotional Chambers said after the game. "If I feel that's being taken away from them, then I'm going to fight for them. ... We're trying to build a culture. We're trying to change. We're trying to buck the system of being the brunt of everybody's jokes, so we're going to fight."
Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, Chambers' antics did not light a fire under his team.
Penn State shot just 10-of-33 from the field in the first half, compared to a 17-of-33 shooting performance by the Spartans, as MSU took a 52-27 lead to the break.
The second half saw much of the same, as the Spartans dominated in nearly every aspect of the game.
For the game, the Spartans held PSU to a 32.2 shooting percentage, and when things were all said and done, MSU came away with the blowout victory, 88-57. In total, 11 different Spartans got into the scoring action as the team finished with 22 assists on 28 made baskets.
The Spartans now have two games left in the Big Ten regular season, with a road game against Rutgers scheduled for Wednesday and the regular season final against Ohio State slated for next Saturday.
There are a number of things left for MSU to accomplish this season, from an outside shot at a Big Ten regular season Championship, to a No. 1 seed in this year's NCAA Tournament.
"We need a few things to happen for it to fall in place but it sucks because it's out of our control but you never know what will happen," Valentine said. "We've just to do our job and control what we can and win these games to the best of our ability and go into the Big Ten Tournament without or with one, but if not, being that top four seed and try to win two championships."
For Izzo, he's pleased with the overall performance of his team Sunday, and is ready to gear up for this season's final run.
"I thought we did a lot of good things that are going to help us, if we can keep growing and just not let any distractions, I think we've got a chance to make a run here," Izzo said. "That's what it's all about this time of year."
