Michigan State women knock off U-M in Big Ten tournament, again, 74-64
Mark Snyder
INDIANAPOLIS – This is becoming a habit for the Michigan State women's basketball team.
For the fourth time in the past five years, the Spartans bounced Michigan out of the Big Ten tournament, this time with a 74-64 win at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
This time was supposed to be different for the No. 3 seed Wolverines, who were usually the underdog in the game in previous years.
But the No. 6 seed Spartans (21-10) just had too much size for Michigan to handle.
Michigan State advances to face No. 2 seed Maryland in today's 6:30 p.m. semifinal and got there by seizing on the matchups.
With star guard Tori Jankoska (14 points) drawing the focus of the Wolverines' (22-9) defensive game plan, MSU got major contributions from forward Victoria Gaines, who led MSU with 18 and center Krista Allen, who had 12.
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"I just used my height and size as an advantage, just being aggressive on offense, driving the ball and it just clicked for me," Gaines said.
The game was tied at 19 after a quarter and both teams appeared exhausted, having kept a crazy pace early in the game. As it slowed in the second quarter, MSU opened on a 13-3 run to take control.
Much of that came when U-M's Hallie Thome sat out in foul trouble, allowing Allen to start raining midrange jumpers, hitting four in the quarter. Michigan only scored nine points that quarter.
"They did a good job," U-M coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "And we had watched this leading up of, they back screened Tori coming through the middle. And if you step over to help, they pop Allen, and she's a 6-4 kid who hit a bunch of jumpers for them today. I mean, that's the difference. If you look at their bench points compared to our bench points (22-5), they really made an impact for them today. And obviously it was led by Jenna Allen and Gaines, who was another kid that we thought didn't score in bunches for them, she wasn't a key going in, really made us pay for that as well."
The Wolverines dropped their fourth game in the past five, as they dug a 10-point second-quarter hole and never made a big climb out.
A day after rallying to survive No. 11 seed Wisconsin, the Spartans had far less trouble with the Wolverines, who had one of their worst shooting games of the year at 35.7%.
Though U-M was led by Kysre Gondrezick's 23 points, she had a scoreless second quarter as MSU played off her aggression, taking charges as she attacked the basket.
"We really tried to concentrate on that defensively when she put the ball on the floor because she's so powerful to the rim that if we could shut those driving lanes off, we'd be in good shape," MSU coach Suzy Merchant said.
The Spartans kept pushing the lead out, getting it to 17 points with under 4 minutes remaining in the game. U-M made a later push to get it to single digits but it was too late.
"In the second half we really got good looks," Barnes Arico said. "We just didn't get them to fall. And I think part of that is the pressure of the situation. Part of that is Michigan State, for sure. They're bigger bodies. They're aggressive bodies. We were getting bumped and banged around and that definitely weighed on us for sure."
Knocking off the higher-seeded Wolverines was nothing new for MSU, though, as the Spartans beat U-M by 18 points on Feb. 19 in Ann Arbor.
"We felt really good about today," Barnes Arico said. "Michigan State's just -- it's been a real tough matchup for us. It's interesting, we get them every year we come here."
The most recent ESPN.com NCAA tournament bracket has both teams safely in the field, so it's unlikely this game will change that much for the Wolverines and Barnes Arico repeated that she expects to get a bid.
Michigan State is familiar with this stage, having reached the semifinal round just last year, losing in the title game to Maryland, and will be making its 13th appearance in the round.
Playing their third game in three days will be a challenge for the Spartans, who also will be fighting history, having never beaten the No. 4-ranked Terrapins, 0-9 all time including a 17-point loss this season.
"We're just going to enjoy this one for a few more minutes and then not sleep for the next 24 hours," Merchant said. "Maybe their bus won't show up on time."
Contact Mark Snyder: msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark__snyder.