Just over a month later on Tuesday night, the team simply stopped.

Waving a white flag, they let the clock run its final seconds as they and their opponent parted ways off the court. The 10-point deficit hung heavily in the air, though Head Coach Tom Izzo said he can stomach it. This time.

"We find ways to lose games instead of finding ways to win games, and it was a rough couple of days," Izzo said. "I'll be very blunt about it."

Here are two takeaways when comparing the two games:

The starting lineup has rotated

When the two teams originally met at the Breslin Center, Aaron Henry, Joshua Langford, A.J. Hoggard, Thomas Kithier and Joey Hauser kickstarted the night.

This round, however, Kithier and Hauser found themselves replaced and, instead, Marcus Bingham Jr. and Malik Hall filled in. This was Hall's third overall start this season, his first being against Penn State the prior Tuesday.

Henry again took the crown of the highest scorer on the team, hitting double figures both games with 13 and 15 points each.

"(Going into the game, my mindset was) just to try to get a win," Henry said. "... The winning plays that we did and made down the stretch the first time at the Breslin, we tried to correct those and be better. It showed that we ... played hard, we competed, but down the stretch, we got to make those plays."

In the first game, Langford, who added 10 points, back up Henry. Except, Langford fell short this time, only surfacing the final buzzer with nine points.

Izzo said that Langford is a great shooter — one of the best midrange guys he's got — and, usually, he's trigger happy. But tonight he kept taking the ball in there and getting knocked down. Literally.

"They're not going to call the fouls anymore," Izzo said. "They're just going to let people jump up and hit you, and they're not going to call them. We told him he's got to take one dribble and shoot it."

Not to fear though, because of an unforeseen night from Julius Marble II and another consistent performance from Joey Hauser — the pair added a total of 21 points to MSU's final score.

Both were the only other two aside from Henry to score in double figures Tuesday night.

This time as well, the Spartans were missing Foster Loyer, due to shoulder injury and Rocket Watts due to illness. The two saw the court, but not very much of it.

Statistically, speaking?

"I would say we didn't improve on some things like free throw cutouts again, which we work on all the time," Izzo said. "That was very, very disappointing. I thought we took care of the ball decently until the last two minutes of the game. ... I did think we had some great shots."

On Jan. 8, the team was making 39% of their attempted field goals, 23% of their attempted three-pointers and 76% of their attempted free throws. Their largest run was 13-0, and their largest lead was right when the second half took off, where they scored 33 points to Purdue's 16 in the final 20 minutes.

On Tuesday, things went in both directions. The team was making 44% of their field goals, 44% of their three-pointers and 67% of their free throws. Their largest run was 6-0, and their largest lead was near the final quarter, where they held 25 points to Purdue's 24.

MSU calculated a total of 22 fouls on Jan. 8, with three people in trouble of getting ejected. That number rose to 25 Tuesday night, and the list of people in foul trouble was quite lengthy.

The team has five games left on its roster, four in the span of eight days, with their final being against in-state rival No. 3 Michigan. Now 10-9 overall, 4-9 in conference play, the green and white need to shift it into hyperdrive if they want even the smallest glimpse at the postseason.