The No. 2 seed MSU basketball team (29-5) trails the No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders at the half in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, 41-35.
MSU is led at the half by eight points, four rebounds and six assists from senior guard Denzel Valentine, while freshman forward Deyonta Davis has eight points.
Junior forward Reggie Upshaw has 11 points at the half for the Blue Raiders, while sophomore guard Giddy Potts has chipped in with eight points.
The Blue Raiders stormed out of the gates early, using hot shooting to take a quick 15-2 lead at the 15:29 mark of the first half. This prompted an early timeout from MSU and head coach Tom Izzo.
The Spartans came back and at one point cut the Blue Raider lead to one, 23-22 with 8:01 to go in the half. However, Middle Tennessee caught fire again and went up by nine, 35-26, off of back-to-back 3-pointers from junior forward Reggie Upshaw with just over five minutes left in the half.
The Blue Raiders then went to the half with the 41-35 lead and are shooting 8-of-12 from behind the 3-point arc during the first 20 minutes of action
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