Monday, December 29, 2025

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Team

BASKETBALL

Toughness key in Spartans' physical win

MSU played a tough, hard-nosed game to beat the Boilermakers on Sunday. For the first time maybe this entire season, the Spartans exhibited coinciding flashes of toughness, grit, heart and, well, good ol’ fashioned MSU basketball.

ICE HOCKEY

MSU clinches 2nd place, now looks foward

Following the MSU hockey team’s disappointing four-point weekend, hockey reporter Alex Difilippo analyzes the series’ impact on the Spartans’ NCAA Tournament chances and the upcoming CCHA Tournament.

BASKETBALL

Finishing strong

The MSU women’s basketball team’s 70-50 win against Minnesota on Sunday at Breslin Center served three purposes: It sent the team’s four seniors out as winners, clinched the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and also gave the team 10 wins in its last 11 games, the second best regular season finish in program history, trailing only the 2004-05 national runner-up team that won 13 of its last 14.

BASKETBALL

A Spartan rebound

The No. 14 MSU men’s basketball team overcame a staggering turnover total in a physical game to steal a 53-44 win from No. 3 Purdue on its home floor Sunday. The win keeps the Spartans’ Big Ten regular season championship hopes alive.

SPORTS

No. 1 Oklahoma ruins MSU's Senior Night

Competing in their final career meet Friday at Jenison Field House, seniors Rochelle Robinson and Nicole Curler set the tone with memorable launches that gave the No. 23 Spartans early momentum. Unfortunately for the Spartans, they saw a below-average performance on the bars, eventually falling 196.825-194.125 to the Sooners.

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.