Down 13 points with ten minutes left in the first half, MSU was in dangerous territory. When they entered the locker room for halftime, the Spartans led by double-digits. 

MSU turned a slow start into a 23-point swing in the first half, and senior guard Jaden Akins scored a career-high 25 points as the Spartans closed out an 83-75 win against the Bulldogs from the Southern Conference Tuesday night at Breslin Center. 

“How do you go from a 25-point swing in seven minutes?” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said postgame. “That’s encouraging, I guess.”

Akins shot 10-for-15 from the field and 3-for-7 from deep on his career-best scoring night, adding three rebounds. Freshman guard Jase Richardson also notched a career-high 12 points but went down late with an apparent injury to his left foot. 

MSU graduate center Szymon Zapala finished with 10 points and six rebounds. Sophomore forward Xavier Booker pitched in seven points, making his only three-point attempt.

Samford was led by forward Jaden Brownell, an Illinois-Chicago transfer, who finished with 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting and nine rebounds. 

MSU (4-1) is now 1-0 all-time against the Bulldogs.

The Spartans won’t play at Breslin Center again until Dec. 7, traveling for the three-day Maui Invitational beginning on Nov. 25 against Colorado University.

Early-season tests are over for MSU as its schedule toughens ahead of college basketball’s annual holiday-break tournaments across North America. Izzo and the Spartans haven’t played in the Maui Invitational since 2019, back when they regularly contended for the Final Four. 

If the Spartans beat Colorado next Monday, they’ll likely face the two-time reigning champion UConn Huskies the following day at 6 p.m. If not, they’ll play the loser of UConn-Memphis on Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 3:30 p.m.

MSU turns slow start into 23-point swing

Entering Tuesday night, MSU had shot 16-for-80 (20%) from three through four games, costing it an eight-point loss down the stretch against No. 1 Kansas and almost its last game against Bowling Green.  Those shooting woes continued Tuesday night against Samford as MSU shot 7-for-24 (29%) from deep.

There was a collective despair among the ambiance of Breslin Center as the Spartans started 0-for-9 from three on several open looks and trailed 21-8 at the midway mark of the first half. Minutes later, around the seven-minute mark, Booker swished one from the right wing to save MSU from starting 0-for-10. 

“I can’t tell you how big that was,” Izzo said.

The Spartans ran into their polar opposite offensively. Samford head coach Bucky McMillian is known for his frenzied offensive pace and frequent pressure looks on defense — better known to Samford fans as “Bucky Ball.” The Bulldogs primarily run a five-out offense that contrasts with MSU’s traditionally built roster and scheme. 

McMillian and the Bulldogs’ high-octane offense landed an early punch on the Spartans Tuesday, jumping out to a 21-8 point lead in the first ten minutes of play with a few threes in transition and their press forcing five MSU turnovers.

For a while in the first half, Samford looked like equals with MSU. Then the Spartans took over. 

Booker sparked MSU’s 30-7 run spanning the last 10:04 of the first half, hitting MSU’s first three and putting back his own miss the next possession to bring the Spartans back within seven points. They settled down from there, piecing together stop after stop while playing relentlessly in transition and also finding their rhythm from deep.

MSU junior guard Tre Holloman and Akins nailed back-to-back threes at the three-minute mark of the first half to put MSU up 31-25. Both were open looks created off dribble penetration, something the Spartans struggled to do for a while Tuesday. 

“I did think we took a couple of bad (shots) but I thought we took a lot of good ones early,” Izzo said. “I would’ve taken every one of those and they just didn’t go in.”

MSU’s 38-28 halftime lead showed just how capable it is of playing its best basketball for a set period of time. The Spartans’ 23-point swing to end the first half removed the palpable anxiety from the building and MSU settled in. 

Akins leads the charge on career night

On Tuesday night, Akins was the primary guy on both ends for MSU — playing the role he needs to play, Izzo has repeatedly said. When his team needed him Tuesday night, the 6-foot-4 senior guard turned in a career-best scoring performance. 

It was a bleak start for Akins, who missed two open-as-can-be looks from three on the right wing during MSU’s sluggish first thirteen minutes. Then Izzo’s main man found his groove, scoring five straight to tie the game at 23-23.

His three to put MSU up 31-25 with 2:54 remaining in the first half took the roof off Breslin, forcing McMilian to call a timeout. That was all Akins needed to heat up. He converted an and-one moments later to give MSU a double-digit advantage, a major lead considering it was down 13 not long before. 

Just over two minutes into the second half, Akins made a play showing what can make him dangerous. After a swing pass found him on the right wing, he pump-faked, flew by his defender and floated home a teardrop over two defenders with his off-hand. He made it look easy. 

As Samford pressured down the stretch and drew within five points with six minutes left, Akins extended a five-point MSU lead to 11 by drilling two straight contested threes. 

Akins doesn’t need to be Superman this season for MSU to go where it wants. But he will, on most nights, need to hit those kinds of shots, be at the forefront of MSU’s overall production and lead in more ways than one.

“It’s taken a while for Jaden to realize he’s the first option, not the third option,” Izzo said.

MSU will battle Colorado at 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 25 at the historic Lahaina Civic Center in Maui, Hawaii.