The Spartans held the Huskies, who came into the contest ranked third in the nation in field goal percentage, to just 33.3 percent (25-of-75) shooting while the Spartans shot 50.9 percent (29-of-57) in the contest.
Junior Eugene German scored a team-high 20 points, senior Levi Bradley finished with 13 points and senior Lacey James just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.
“They are a typical Coach Izzo team, well-polished, going to compete for the Big Ten championship and going to compete for the national championship again,” said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. “I thought we tried to battle. We came in shooting an unbelievable percentage, so credit Michigan State’s defense. I don’t think we were nervous, we just missed some shots that we always make.”
Michigan State (11-2) jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead on a trio of triples, but layups from Bradley and German brought the Huskies back within four, 12-8.
The Spartans answered with an 11-0 run as Michigan State built a 23-8 lead with just over 12 minutes to play in the opening half.
A jumper by Xavier Tillman just before the buzzer gave Michigan State a 24-point lead, 43-19, at intermission. NIU did a good job on the defensive end in the opening 20 minutes, holding the Spartans to just 40 percent (12-of-30) shooting, but Michigan State put the clamps on the NIU offense, holding the Huskies to just 23.5 percent (8-of-34) shooting from the field.
NIU (7-6) scored six of the first nine to open the second half before Michigan State responded with a 7-0 burst to take a 53-25 advantage just over four minutes into the second half.
The Huskies came right back with the next eight on a triple by Bradley, a layup from German and a corner three from James but NIU was unable to slow down the Michigan State offense in the second half as the Spartans shot 63 percent (17-of-27) from the field after the intermission.
Cassius Winston led all scorers with 24 points, along with seven assists. Kenny Goins added 12 points while Nick Ward chipped in 11 points; Tillman had eight points to go along with a game-high 13 rebounds.
NIU will now turn its attention to Mid-American Conference play as the Huskies open the league slate on the road at Ohio on Saturday, January 5. Tipoff against the Bobcats is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT and will be available on ESPN3.
(Courtesy of NIU Athletics)