No. 10 MSU leads the University of Michigan 44-28 at halftime in the only meeting between the in-state rivals this season. MSU is led by senior guards Denzel Valentine and Bryn Forbes who have 12 and 23 points, respectively.
MSU and U-M traded baskets to open the game, but similar to the past few games the hot shooting Spartans opened up an 11-5 lead, thanks to an 8-0 run over a three minutes span early in the first half behind 4-of-5 shooting from the 3-point line.
From there it was all MSU, as the Spartans shot 10-of-14 from behind the 3-point line, led by Forbes who knocked down 7-of-9 from behind the 3-point line in the first half as MSU picked apart U-M's various zone defenses. On defense, MSU suffocated U-M, holding the Wolverines, the third-best 3-point shooting team in the Big Ten, to just 2-of-12 in the first half - MSU also forced two shot-cock violations in the first half.
MSU's lead grew as large as 18 in the first half at 29-11. U-M would make a run though as the team began to knock down its open shots, going on a 11-4 run of its own to close the gap to 33-22.
Some poor decision making and bad passes by MSU helped aid U-M's run as MSU committed seven turnovers in the first half, and made several other passes that were tipped or deflected out of bounds.
One area people expected MSU to have an advantage over its rival U-M was inside where MSU has a considerable more amount of size. However, MSU scored just six points in the paint, compared to 12 points in the paint for U-M.
MSU won the first half rebounding battle to U-M 14-12, and U-M was able to grab five offensive rebounds in the first half.
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