Spartans Dispatch Huskies with Stellar Defensive Effort

**Breslin Center- East Lansing, MI**

One point. That is all the Washington Huskies (10-6, 1-4) could muster for almost 10 minutes into the game, and it was all uphill while MSU (13-2, 4-0) poured it on to an 88-54 win.

Washington is playing like trash but the defense has been smothering. IL won by four at their house ONE game ago. MSU hasn’t bludgeoned the bottom of the conference like this in a while. Pretty good sign. Got to carry this to Welsh pic.twitter.com/8kAgxaVC9y

— DK (@SpartanHoops_DK) January 10, 2025

Spartans Defense Stands Firm, Yet Again

The MSU defense against 2-pt FG% was again the highlight of the night, despite the offense almost reaching 90 points. The Huskies put up measly 15-39 (38.4%) from 2-point and an uglier (3-16), from 3-pt, totaling 21-71 for all FGs (29.5%). Leading scorer Great Osobor was stymied without a single field goal and scored all 6 points on free throws. The lone Husky in double digits was Tyler Harris, 14 pts (5-10 FGs, 3-4 FTs) with 3 turnovers. At one point, Washington was down 41 points and was outscored 26-44 in the paint and a gaudy 2-28 fast break point disparity.

Coach Izzo’s defensive minded team turned the rebound edge, fast break dominance and near-perfect free throw line (17-18) into a beat down as they shared the ball with 24 assists on 32 total made baskets. Their offense was led by Jaden Akins, 20 points (8-13 FGs, 3 reb, 0 turnovers), Jase Richardson’s 12 points (5-8 FGs) and chipped in 5 steals and 2 blocks, Jeremy Fears Jr. first career double-double, 12 points (4-8 FGs) and 10 dimes and 1 steal, while Tre Holloman came alive chipping in 11 points (4-9 FGs, 2-3 3-pt) and 6 assists as well. Jaxon Kohler did a bit of everything, tallying 6 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists with 1 steal & block.

-Dominant win from start to finish. 2nd time this season MSU has a 30+ point win in Big Ten play that is not an easy thing to do.
-The defense really set the tone and made this over in the first half when they held Washington to 13 1H points.
-4 guys in double figure scoring ✅ pic.twitter.com/TC98ekjo4j

— Spartan City (@Spartan__City) January 10, 2025

We won’t spend much time on this game. With the expansion of the conference, there are more chances for lopsided games such as these and they all count for one win.

Both teams will move on from this quickly, refocusing on their next opponent with the larger goal in mind- March Madness.

TEAM STATS:

MSU: 32-61 FG (52.5%), 7-21, 3-PT (33.3%), 17-18 FT (94.4%)

UW: 18-55 FG (32.7%), 3-16, 3-PT (18.8%), 15-23FT (65.2%)

Record/Rankings & More:

13-2 (4-0, 1st-Big Ten)
Updated KenPom #14- Off: 32nd / Def: 10th. Adjusted Tempo: 146th. SOS Net Rtg: 53rd +4.62

Other Metrics: KPI (18th), ESPN SoR (14th), ESPN BPI (16th), T-Rank: 16th

FULL KenPom Stats: https://kenpom.com/index.php

FULL Bart Torvik Stats: https://barttorvik.com/#

FULL T-Rank Stats: https://www.warrennolan.com/basketball/2025/net-teamsheets-plus#google_vignette

NEXT ON THE CLOCK:

The Spartans will look to stay hot, taking to Evanston, IL for a road tilt with scrappy Northwestern (10-5, 1-3). The Wildcats have a home upset win vs Illinois and close loses to Dayton, Iowa, Butler and PSU and this will be only their second conference home game. Contest is Sunday, 1/12 at 12:00 EST on FOX.