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Stormed Out Of Town

By Case Keefer

Saturday, January 10, 2009

EAST LANSING, Mich. — In basketball, there are runs. And then, there are runaways.

Michigan State ran away from Kansas in its 75-62 victory Saturday by outscoring the Jayhawks 19-1 during a 10-minute stretch in the first half. Despite Jayhawk rallies in the second half that cut the deficit to as low as nine points, they could never recover from trailing 37-18 at halftime.

“We just tried to keep chipping at it, chipping at it and it worked,” sophomore center Cole Aldrich said. “But that first half – it was just too much for us.”

Kansas coach Bill Self felt confident before the game and four minutes into it. Self thought his team would hang with No. 8 Michigan State (13-2) and have a chance to win at the end. At the first media timeout, Kansas (11-4) led 11-6.

Reality started to crash as hard as the snow was falling in the blizzard outside the Breslin Center. Michigan State sophomore guard Kalin Lucas, who finished with a team-high 22 points, ignited his team with two three-pointers over the next few minutes.

“The rest of the half, they were terrific,” Self said. “And we played about as poorly as we could play.”

Kansas failed to make a field goal for the next 10 minutes. Aldrich botched two alley-oop dunks on passes from junior guard Sherron Collins. Sophomore guard Brady Morningstar bricked a three-pointer off the side of the backboard.

Self was desperate. He resorted to nearly clearing his bench in the first half and played 12 different guys. At one point, three players who didn’t even appear in Kansas’ last game – senior center Matt Kleinmann, junior guard Tyrone Appleton and freshman forward Quintrell Thomas – were on the floor together.

“When you’re playing that poorly, why don’t you try something,” Self said. “That’s what we tried to do and obviously, we didn’t score points from it.”

Self didn’t rely on any gimmicks in the second half. If Kansas wanted to come back, it was going to do it behind a monster effort from Collins.

Collins roared out of the locker room with seven points in just more than three minutes to cut the lead to 39-27. Collins scored a game-high 25 points – with all but five of them coming in the second half – with eight assists and eight turnovers.

“I think we competed as hard as we’ve competed all year in the second half,” Collins said. “We’ve just got to find a way to do that in the first half.”

Michigan State prevented Kansas from coming any closer than 12 points away in the middle of the second half with a balanced effort. Beyond Lucas, seven Michigan State players scored at least four points. Four Spartans grabbed at least five rebounds.

The Jayhawks got their final chance with less than three minutes remaining and the score 63-54. Aldrich, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds, put the Jayhawks into the position by fighting for a rebound and passing the ball up the court in transition.

Collins caught Aldrich’s pass, dribbled to the edge of the three-point line and released a shot to cut it to a two-possession game.

“I just knew it was good,” Collins said. “I think I pulled up right in motion, my feet were set and everything was right.”

The shot rimmed out. The rebound ricocheted out of Morningstar’s hands. When Spartan guard Chris Allen made a three-pointer seconds later, the comeback attempt had officially ended.

“One thing we can take away from this game is the way we competed in the second half,” Aldrich said. “I thought we came out and played really well.”

But Kansas could never catch up after the head start it allowed Michigan State.

Comments

rubysanto (anonymous) says...

Izzo owns Self

January 12, 2009 at 9:06 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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