Spartans Lose First Game at the Breslin Center This Season

The No. 16 Michigan State Spartans lost their first home game of the season on Thursday to the Oregon Ducks.

Michigan State's head coach Robyn Fralick, center, talks to the team during a break in the action in the third quarter of the game against Oregon on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

No. 16 Michigan State women’s basketball lost its first home game of the season to the Oregon Ducks, 63-59, on Thursday.

Previously, the men’s and women’s teams were a combined 21-0 playing at the Breslin Center this season.

The Ducks got out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and held on the majority of the game before the Spartans’ fourth-quarter comeback attempt fell short.

With 4 minutes remaining in the fourth, Spartan graduate guard Julia Ayrault cut the deficit to 3 points after being down as many as 18. Ayrault finished the game as the Spartans’ co-leading scorer with 14 points despite having a struggling shooting performance.

However, the Michigan State offense, which is typically more efficient in the second half of games, stalled out, scoring 4 points in the remaining 4 minutes. Securing a significant road victory for Oregon, which is now tied in the Big Ten standings with the Spartans at 7-3.

The Spartans have relied on their 3-point shooting all season, which has worked out in the majority of games. But when they go cold like they did on Thursday, making only 25 percent of perimeter shots, they have the potential to be upset.

Junior forward Grace Vanslooten played well in her first game against her former team, scoring 14 points off the bench. Vanslooten transferred from Oregon this past offseason and has been a key reason for the Spartans’ successful 17-4 record.

In Michigan State coach Robyn Fralick’s short tenure as the Spartans’ coach, they have dominated at home, with a record of 23-3 halfway through her second season at the helm of the program.

Michigan State will be able to get back into the win column on Sunday when it takes on Northwestern on the road.

The men’s team is still undefeated, 11-0 at home and will have its next game on Feb. 8 at the Breslin Center against the No. 16 Oregon Ducks, who have been cold, dropping their last two road games to Minnesota and UCLA.

Fralick’s squad will be back at the Breslin Center on Feb. 9, to take on the No. 24 Michigan Wolverines, who they beat by 30 points in Ann Arbor last weekend. 

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