At halftime of No. 6 Michigan State’s 63-62 loss to Indiana Saturday afternoon, the Spartans had managed to out-rebound Indiana 19-11. When the Hoosiers won in East Lansing in February, they out-rebounded MSU 48-40, and it was a point of emphasis going into the rematch to not let it happen again.

“The first half was pretty good, we focused on not letting them get any offensive rebounds, and we did a pretty good job of that,” sophomore forward Xavier Tillman said. 

In the second half, the rebounding advantage flipped back to the Hoosiers. Indiana grabbed 20 rebounds to MSU’s 11, including 10 on the offensive end, compared to MSU's one.

“I think (the rebounding edge) speaks volumes about why the game may have changed,” Indiana coach Archie Miller said. “But you have to be consumed by it.”

Tillman said some of the offensive rebounds Indiana got in the second half were due to the types of shots the Hoosiers were taking. They shot ten threes in the second half.

“They shot a lot of threes where the guards got posted up, so it’s kind of weird for the bigs, because we’re already down there getting wedged in by their bigs, so it was kind of different,” he said. “Before, they would take deep threes, and guys wouldn’t crash, and we’d be good like that.”

The difference in the half was epitomized by the final score of the game. Indiana senior forward Juwan Morgan went up and grabbed an offensive rebound over Tillman, and scored off the glass through a foul. He converted the free throw that gave IU their only lead of the second half, 63-62.

The rebounding differential was the only thing MSU coach Tom Izzo said he was upset about in the postgame press conference.

“We gotta do what is a choice, not a skill,” he said. “It’s a choice to cut out and rebound, it’s a skill to make a shot. We got beat because we didn’t choose to rebound as well.”

Injury bug bits again

Redshirt junior forward Kyle Ahrens left the game early in the second half with back issues that have been bothering him all season.

“The problem was I thought Kyle was OK to play, until right after halftime,” Izzo said. “There’s an advantage with a tough kid and a disadvantage. A tough kid is always gonna say he can play. He finally says he can’t even get off the seat. You appreciate it, but you also say, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’” 

This week, senior guard Matt McQuaid did not practice with a right ankle sprain he sustained last Sunday against Michigan. He did start, and play, scoring six points in 36 minutes. Izzo called it a heroic effort, but was visibly frustrated postgame over the team’s injury situation.

“You’re tryna reinvent your team on the frickin’ bench,” Izzo said.

Junior guard Joshua Langford is out for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot. Junior forward Nick Ward is out indefinitely with a hairline fracture in his left hand. 

In the second half, MSU only played bench players for five total minutes, with junior point guard Cassius Winston and senior forward Kenny Goins playing all 20 minutes.

“We just flat-out ran out of gas,” Izzo said. “My guys gave everything they had. I wish a couple guys would have played better, but no fault on what they’ve done.” 

Tillman was asked about the injuries, but denied that he was thinking about them during the game.

“I’m not taking that as an excuse, because we’re a team that’s been versatile the whole season," he said. "It came down to rebounding in the second half, and that’s something that we didn’t do.

Izzo reiterated multiple times that while mistakes were made in the second half, they were borne of fatigue, and blame shouldn’t fall on the players.

“The only one who should get any blame on this is me for not subbing better,” he said. “The guys in (the locker room) are crushed, and a couple of them played their hearts out, and gave me everything they got.”

Michigan State plays Nebraska (15-14, 5-13 Big Ten) Tuesday night. Ward is out for that game, and Ahrens’ status is uncertain. McQuaid is expected to play.