Game of the Week: Michigan State Wins in OT
No. 10 Michigan State pulls it off against No. 5 Illinois with an 85-82 win in overtime. Let’s see how the game played out.
The Spartans were led by sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. who scored 26 points with a whopping 15 assists in the game. Senior forward Jaxon Kohler scored 11 points and had 16 rebounds while freshman forward Jordan Scott and sophmore guard Kur Teng had 10 points each, with the latter having seven rebounds. One of the glaring reasons why the Spartans won was the rebound game. The Spartans had 48 rebounds while Illinois had 38. Plus, Illinois also got into foul trouble a lot with junior center Tomislav Ivisic fouling out and freshman forward David Mirkovic having four fouls.
Both teams did a pretty good job keeping the turnovers low, but how did Illinois’ offense fare? Mirkovic scored 18 points with six rebounds and six assists while junior guard Andrej Stojakovic scored 17 points with seven rebounds. Freshman guard Keaton Wagler scored 16 points with six rebounds and junior forward/center Zvonimir Ivisic had eight rebounds off the bench.
Overall, both teams were pretty evenly matched, so it may have really came down to rebounds, but let’s look closely at the end of the game to see went down.
At the final second of the game Fears Jr. committed a foul when Wagler missed a shot. Junior forward Jake Davis then had two free throws with the game being 71-69 in Michigan State’s favor. Davis nailed both free throws to tie the game before it would go into overtime.
In overtime, Fears Jr. struck first with a layup to make it 73-71. Later on, senior center Carson Cooper missed 1/2 free throws to make the game 74-71. With 3:36 left in overtime, Tomislav Ivisic made a 26-foot three-point shot to tie the game back to 74-74. Wagler then made a couple of free throws later to give Illinois an edge of 76-74. Michigan State then had a pair of free throws with Fears Jr. nailing both to make it 76-76. Fears Jr. later then made a jumper to make it 78-76 with 1:47 left. He then scored a free throw to make it 79-76. With 1:01 left, freshman forward Cam Ward scored a layup to make it 81-76, Michigan State.
The game then turned into a free throw battle. With 49 seconds left, Wagler made 1/2 free throws to make the game 81-77. Fears Jr. then made both of his free throws to make the game 83-77, Michigan State. Mirkovic responded with a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left. With 10 seconds left, Fears Jr. scored both of his for the final score from Michigan State, 85-79. Wagler then made a 31-foot three-point jumper to make the score 85-82. Things looked promising for Illinois when Wagler got a steal, but he missed three-point jumper to tie the game with six seconds left. Junior forward Coen Carr rebounded and that sealed the game.
So, with both teams pretty balanced, it just came down to rebounds and free throws, which is the story of basketball.