The Spartans came in seventh in the country in rebounding margin, at an average of +8.5 per game, bound to go up after a dominant performance like this. Senior forward Kenny Goins had 16 in his final game at Breslin Center, while freshman forward Aaron Henry chipped in eight, including three on the offensive glass.

“Anytime we do that and we lose, there’s something crazy going on,” Henry said, saying that there was no way the Spartans could lose with a statistic like that.

In the first half of the first matchup in Ann Arbor Feb. 24, the Wolverines controlled the glass, but since then, it has been all Spartans. Michigan sophomore forward Isaiah Livers thinks that players on his team were caught up in the emotions of the game and didn’t box out correctly.

“That ball-watching is gonna turn into an extra possession, and Cassius or McQuaid getting a wide-open three, or Goins getting a wide-open three,” Livers said. “That hurt us.”

Michigan coach John Beilein said part of the problem for the Wolverines on the glass was that the rebounds went long, and athleticism became more of an issue than just positioning.

“Some of those rebounds … If (Michigan sophomore center Jon) Teske and (sophomore forward Xavier) Tillman are going for the ball and it's up there, Tillman's going to get it,” Beilein said. “There were some of those that were way, way out there.”

Spartans run away in the second half

With 13:57 remaining in the game, Michigan freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis hit a three from the top of the key to give the Wolverines a 48-40 lead. It was quite similar to the first matchup between the teams in Ann Arbor, when a Brazdeikis dunk gave Michigan a six-point lead around the same time of the game. Both times, MSU responded, this time in emphatic fashion.

The Spartans unleashed a 25-4 run on the back of the Brazdeikis dunk, with junior point guard Cassius Winston scoring nine and dishing two assists. The Breslin Center rocked with an intensity that MSU coach Tom Izzo compared to “the old days.” When the run was over, MSU had turned an eight-point deficit into a 13-point lead, which it would never relinquish.

In fact, there was only one lead change in this entire game, and it came at the 10:16 mark, when Winston banked in a three-pointer to give MSU the 53-50 advantage.

“Once I banked in that three, I was good to go,” Winston said.

Izzo credited the team’s defense — which held Michigan without a field goal for an extended second half stretch for the second time in two weeks — with the win.

“I think that's why we've hung in there,” Izzo said. “We've been about as solid of a defensive team, for one that I didn't think would be a great defensive team.”

Beilein was asked what happened during the run, and he touched on both sides of the ball.

“I think we imploded a little bit on a couple occasions where they just blocked a couple shots during that time and that was huge and then we missed some shots, we even had a couple air balls and that's real tough for us,” he said. “Now they're out, and they didn't miss at their end. We lost some coverages in transition.”