Senior guard Denzel Valentine shoots the ball during the second half of the game against Wisconsin on Feb.18, 2016 at Breslin Center. The Spartans defeated the Badgers, 69-54.
No. 8 MSU defeated Wisconsin 69-57 Thursday night, avenging its 77-76 loss to Wisconsin on Jan. 17. MSU was led by senior guard Bryn Forbes with 17 points and senior guard Denzel Valentine who finished with 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Wisconsin was led by freshman forward Ethan Happ, who finished with 18 points.
MSU and Wisconsin came in to the game as two of the hottest teams in the conference with Wisconsin having won its past seven games and MSU having won five of its past six games with its only loss being by one-point to Purdue on Feb. 9.
“I think we won a game the way you need to win a game as it gets to the end of the year,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “Our defense, I thought was unbelievable at times. We did a heck of a job on Vito Brown, a heck of a job on Hayes.”
MSU wasted no time in looking to avenge its 77-76 loss to Wisconsin on Jan. 17 as MSU scored the first five points of the game with a Forbes three and an alley-oop from senior guard Denzel Valentine to senior forward Matt Costello. Valentine finished the game with 11 points, eight assists and fiverebounds.
After a three by Wisconsin senior guard Bronson Koenig to cut MSU's lead to 5-3, MSU went on another 9-0 run to take a 14-3 lead behind solid defensive play as Wisconsin shot just 1-of-9 from the floor over the first seven minutes of action.
Valentine said he thinks the quick start by MSU is part of being mentally prepared for the game, something that has been stressed to the team all season.
"We had a good start, and I think that was part of being ready to play and being focused and being mentally prepared," Valentine said. "We were the hungrier team today and we wanted to win more."
After that, defense took hold on both ends over the next six minutes as MSU extended its lead to 20-10 heading into the under eight minutes timeout. After the timeout MSU continued its stellar play as it took a commanding 28-14 lead.
Wisconsin managed to cut MSU's lead to nine at 32-23 at the half led by junior guard Zak Showalter who scored six of his eight points in the first half.
MSU and Wisconsin traded baskets to open the second half with MSU getting three pointers from Forbes and junior guard Eron Harris. With MSU leading 38-27 Valentine found a trailing Costello in transition who powered his way to the hoop for a dunk and a 40-27 lead, bringing the crowd to its feet and forcing a Wisconsin timeout.
Wisconsin could not recover from there, as MSU's stellar defense held Wisconsin star junior forward Nigel Hayes to just five points on 1-of-13 from the field. MSU's defense suffocated Wisconsin as the team shot just 20-of-59 for the game and 6-of-20 from the 3-point line.
Freshman forward Deyonta Davis was tasked with guarding Hayes for most of the evening doing a much better job this time around than the first matchup when Hayes had 25 points and seven rebounds.
"I stuck to the scouting report,"Davis said about his defensive performance, which included three blocked shots. "(I) Kept my hands up and didn't let them go baseline. I just stuck to the scouting report. My length was a reason they weren't able to score."
Davis and junior forward Gavin Schilling both saw more than their usual minutes with redshirt freshman forward Kenny Goins out with a left knee injury. Davis scored six points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Shilling added six points and five rebounds of his own.
MSU's lead got as large as 22 in the second half as MSU continued its unselfish play, assisting on 20 of the teams's 26 field goals. MSU also out rebounded Wisconsin 38-31.
Izzo said he was a little concerned about the 12 turnovers MSU had tonight, especially the three turnovers in the last 1:20 of the game which led to six straight Wisconsin points.
“We got a little sloppy with the ball when we got tired, go sloppy when we let our guard down a little bit,” Izzo said. “That was a big thing to me right now, because when you get near tournament time, any kind of tournament, the ‘my bads’ and the one mistakes that you could accept during the year become much more critical. And that is the only reason I wasn’t as pleased as I should be winning a game like that because we had a couple of those things happen.”
Valentine said while the win was good and he was pleased with how the team played, he knows the team needs to stay focused if it wants to reach its lofty goals and possibly win the Big Ten, or more.
"We need to realize we have more wins to get," Valentine said. "If we want to be the best team in the nation, best team in our conference and play for something bigger like a championship, we need to take care of what we can."
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