“I thought it was a little bit of a slow start… I thought there were some good things for sure that we worked out over time,” Head Women's Basketball Coach Suzy Merchant said. “Our one-on-one accountability and first play the game — that kind of drove right by us — that was disappointing. And then our rebounding is still something we're going to continue to improve on.”

The second quarter is where the Spartans really started to pull away from the Golden Grizzlies. Michigan State scored 20 points and held Oakland to just four. After that point, the Spartans ran away with the lead outscoring the Grizzlies 42-20.

MSU struggled with turnovers throughout the game turning the ball over 13 times. However, the Spartans were able to force 29 turnovers on the Golden Grizzlies.

Junior guard Gabby Elliott led the Spartans with 12 points and four rebounds. The Detroit native was followed closely by sophomore forward Isaline Alexander, freshman guard Theryn Hallock and sophomore guard/forward Matilda Ekh with nine points each.

Michigan State has been able to utilize its deep bench this season and was able to play nearly the entire roster Tuesday night.

“People gotta kind of start defining their own selves a little bit and what's consistent and what they bring to the table,” Merchant said. “That's kind of what this is: to kind of give them opportunity to see what they can do on game night.”

Michigan State will be back in action at the Breslin Center Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Florida A&M.