Two teams ranked in the Top 10 faced off in the State Farm Champions Classic. Here’s what we learned from Michigan State Basketball in the loss.
The Michigan State Spartans proved to be a formidable opponent, but in the end, the Kansas Jayhawks pulled out a 92-87 victory, handing the Spartans their first loss of the season. For their efforts, Michigan State allowed freshman guard Quentin Grimes to go off for 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from behind the arc in his first game as a college athlete.
Without the star power of Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. in the frontcourt, the Spartans struggled for much of their opening game. They were overwhelmed on the inside and Kansas used their experience to their advantage in the victory. Udoka Azubuike had 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor. Dedric Lawson finished with a double-double (20 points and 14 rebounds).
🚨Double-Double Alert 🚨 for our guys @cassiuswinston and @K_G_1_2_ #SpartanDawgs pic.twitter.com/bOSaFUmjJu
— Michigan State Men's Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) November 7, 2018
The Spartans got what they could out of their returning trio of players (Cassius Winston, Nick Ward and Joshua Langford) but it simply wasn’t enough. Winston finished with 13 points and 11 assists. Ward had a quiet game while Langford finished with18 points.
Michigan State opened the second half on a 19-13 run to cut the lead to eight before the Jayhawks went on a 7-0 run of their own and never looked back. The Spartans finished the game with 18 turnovers and 12 missed free throws in a five-point loss. Not bad for the first game of the year. Here’s a look at three takeaways from their loss.