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Sports

BASKETBALL

Keane scores career-high 27 points in win at Purdue

Led by junior forward Kalisha Keane, the MSU women’s basketball team notched its 20th win of the season with a 79-64 victory over Purdue on Thursday at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. The Spartans now can clinch the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament with a win Sunday on Senior Day or a Wisconsin loss.

ICE HOCKEY

Mystery Alaska

Anthony Pollreisz, an Alaska native and MSU senior who has led the hockey student section for three and a half years, will cheer at his last home regular season game Friday. Pollreisz has become a fixture at Munn Ice Arena, initiating cheers and performing his signature dance each home game.

BASKETBALL

Purdue or die

Once again, a top-five Big Ten team has lost perhaps its best player leading up to a matchup with the top spot in the conference on the line. This time, it’s not MSU junior guard Kalin Lucas. It’s Purdue forward Robbie Hummel, who tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in the first half against Minnesota on Wednesday night and will miss the remainder of the season.

BASKETBALL

Lucas needs to step up, take over Spartans

Two years ago, I watched from my seat on Mackey Arena’s press row one February evening as a green blur jetted the length of the floor, lofted an orange orb at one end, bouncing it off the glass and through the net in a repetitive fashion.

BASKETBALL

Breakdown: MSU vs. Purdue

The No. 3 Boilermakers (24-3 overall, 12-3 Big Ten) came to East Lansing on Feb. 9 to hand the Spartans (21-7, 11-4) their first home loss of the season, part of three consecutive MSU losses that dropped it from standing alone in first place in the Big Ten. Now the Spartans will head to West Lafayette, Ind., for a game that could be decisive for both teams.

ICE HOCKEY

Thank you, hockey seniors

This season’s class of four seniors has been part of the highest of highs (2007 National Championship) and the lowest of lows (everything about last season).

BASKETBALL

Seniors nearing end of 'crazy journey'

Emotions and memories will flood the minds of those four — Lauren Aitch, Allyssa DeHaan, Aisha Jefferson and Mandy Piechowski — when they step on the Breslin Center court for the last time Sunday against Minnesota.

ICE HOCKEY

Icers look to end regular season with sweep

If the Spartans can get one game of their home-and-home series this weekend against Bowling Green to a shootout, MSU will clinch a spot in the top four in the CCHA standings and receive a first-round bye and home-ice advantage in the second round of the CCHA Tournament.

BASKETBALL

Spartans must focus on bigger picture after loss

If ever there was a time for Tom Izzo’s patented big-picture outlook, it’s now. In a season of promise and high expectations recently maligned with disappointment, the MSU men’s basketball team was, for the second time in a row, sitting in its home locker room both mystified and disheartened Sunday.

BASKETBALL

'Making it happen'

Columbus, Ohio — After seeing its 13-point lead turn into a three-point deficit, the MSU women’s basketball team was on the verge of a crushing defeat to No. 7 Ohio State. In front of a raucous crowd of 11,827 at Value City Arena, the Spartans turned to junior guard Brittney Thomas.