#2 Michigan State Led By A Career Night From Bryn Forbes Destroys Rutgers 97-66
The RAC
Piscataway, NJ
The #2 Michigan State Spartans despite a slow start improved to 25-5 (12-5) on the season extending their winning streak to five and nine of the last ten with a 97-66 win over Rutgers tonight. It was another dominating performance by the Spartans.
Bryn Forbes played like Stephen Curry setting a Spartan and Big Ten record for made three point shots in a game. He put 11 in from long range and had 33 points. Eron Harris put up 15 points and Denzel Valentine had 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Adding to the impressive post game stat sheet Marvin Clark had 10 points and Matt Costello got another double double (9th of the season) with 10 points and 15 rebounds. The 15 boards tied his career high. How dominant were the Spartans? They won on the boards 50-24 and had nine steals while holding Rutgers to 46% shooting.
One last stat is that again MSU had an astonishing 27 assists on 37 baskets. Once again the Spartans had more assists than their opponent had actual made baskets. Rutgers only made 24 baskets. The Spartans tied a school record, hitting 17 three-pointers.
Tom Izzo was frustrated with his Spartans slow start of the game. They were only leading by 2 at halftime and said after the game, “"We did not play well in the first half. To me, we did not respect our opponent and the opponent kicked our butt.''
With this win the Spartans extended their winning streak to five games and with a win over Ohio State this weekend will secure a #2 seed in the Big Ten tournament. That means that MSU would get a two round bye and not play until Friday of the conference tournament.
The Spartans return to action on Saturday for their final Big Ten contest of the season. They are taking on the Ohio State Buckeyes and that game can be seen on ESPN at Noon.
