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Sports | Basketball

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Austin Thornton makes an impact, from walk-on to graduate assistant

Austin Thornton has always had a knack for shooting. Playing in high school at Cedar Springs High School, he averaged 26 points per game his senior season, shooting 49.8 percent from the field and 86.3 percent from the free-throw line. In fact, he holds the Michigan High School record for most made free throws with 572 and places second with 54 consecutive makes from the charity stripe.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Senior forward Matt Costello is MSU basketball's ultimate good guy

MSU senior forward Matt Costello wasn’t expected to be much of a factor in the MSU men’s basketball game against Maryland. In fact, he hadn’t even practiced since suffering a bad ankle sprain in a loss to Nebraska three days prior. However, as he hobbled onto the court that night, little did anyone know he was about to turn in one the grittiest performance of his career — a rock solid 15 point, 12 rebound outing with a couple of key defensive plays down the stretch, which helped MSU take the game, 74-65.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Mark Viele, the man behind the mop

When the MSU basketball team goes into the locker rooms for halftime at Breslin Center, that’s when the stage is set for 60-year-old Mark Viele and his mop. It was more than 40 years ago that Viele, a native of Lansing, got a job at MSU as soon as he got out of high school, and for the better part of the last 20 years, Viele has worked for MSU Athletics, where he sets up and takes down the athletic venues for every MSU sport except hockey.