Nov. 9, 2009

Box Score

East Lansing, Mich. - Grand Valley State fell in an exhibition contest at Michigan State on Monday (Nov. 9) by the score of 76-53. The Lakers were within 10 points at 56-46 with just over seven minutes remaining before MSU closed out the game, knocking off the Lakers in front of 14,759 fans in East Lansing, Mich. GVSU opens its regular season against Northern Kentucky next Sunday (Nov. 15) at 3:00 p.m. in Fieldhouse Arena.

The Spartans, ranked #2 in a pair of Division I preseason polls, were playing without three probable starters in Raymar Morgan, Chris Allen, and Delvon Roe. But Michigan State, runners up in the 2008-09 national championship game to North Carolina, had plenty of good players left on the bench.

MSU jumped out early to a quick 7-2 lead at the first media timeout. 2008-09 Big Ten Player of the Year Kalin Lucas scored on a layup following his own miss for the game's first points. Grand Valley State sophomore center Nick West rejected two Spartan shots in a 15-second span after Lucas' bucket and GVSU got on the board when junior forward Toreau Brown banked in a reverse layup for a 4-2 Michigan State advantage.

With the Spartans on top 13-6, freshman point guard Breland Hogan fed West in the paint, who went up for a powerful dunk, cutting the MSU advantage to 15-6 at the 12:38 mark. Spartan freshman Derrick Nix followed a dunk from Durrell Summers with a pair of left-handed lay-ups to push Michigan State out to a 21-6 advantage.

Trailing 23-8, GVSU put together a 7-0 run over the next 4:17 to cut the Spartan lead to 23-15, as the teams approached halftime. West connected on a jumper and split a pair of free throws before Hogan and junior guard Justin Ringler scored consecutive lay-ups. The MSU scoreless streak ended when Lucas sank a pair of free throws, but the Laker defense had held the Spartans scoreless over the prior four minutes.

Freshman forward Nick Carreri drained a three-pointer at the 2:17 mark to make the score 25-18 in favor of MSU. The Spartans responded with a quick 6-0 run before Carreri hit a triple from way downtown as the halftime buzzer sounded. Carreri's second three-point field goal put the Lakers down 31-21 at the half. While GVSU shot 8-of-24 (33.3 percent) in the first half, it held Michigan State to 11-of-30 shooting (36.7 percent) from the floor. MSU struggled from outside (2-of-8 three-pointers), while the Lakers couldn't get comfortable at the free throw line, making just 3-of-10 attempts.

Michigan State rushed out early again and started the second half the same way it started the first 20 minutes. Draymond Green went on an individual 7-0 run to push out quickly to a 38-21 advantage. Junior forward Toreau Brown knocked in a three-pointer to stop the run, but the Spartans scored the next six points before sophomore guard Alvin Storrs notched his first bucket of the game and junior forward Mike Przydzial added a lay-up to make the score 44-28.

GVSU freshman center Corey Jones then hit an outside jumper and Ringler followed a missed lay-up on the fast break to put in a bucket and bring the Lakers within a dozen at 44-32. MSU answered six quick points, including four from Lucas and a Green bucket, to extend the lead back to 50-32 at the 12:49 mark.

The Spartans pushed the score out to 56-39 before Brown scored on a tough lay-up and freshman Tony Peters converted a fast break lay-up on a pass from Hogan. Brown followed just 30 seconds later with another lay-up and the ensuing free throw and the Lakers were back to within 56-46 with 7:21 remaining.

Michigan State came right back with a 7-0 run to up the lead to 63-46 at the 5:25 mark, although four free throws (three from Hogan) kept the Lakers within striking distance at 63-50 with just over four minutes remaining in the game. MSU closed out the contest on a 13-3 run, finishing the ballgame with a 76-53 score.

Brown led the Lakers with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting and was one of four Lakers with four rebounds. Ringler added eight points and six rebounds, while Carreri notched nine points on 3-of-5 shooting. Przydzial pulled down a team-best eight boards for GVSU.

MSU shot 45.3 (29-of-64) from the field and connected on 14-of-20 (70.0 percent) and the Spartans outrebounded Grand Valley State, 41-36. GVSU knocked down 20-of-51 (39.2 percent) of its field goals, but made just 9-of-21 (42.9 percent) of its attempts from the free throw line. The Spartans committed 11 turnovers, while Grand Valley State totaled 20 miscues.

The last time the two teams met on the hardwood, GVSU pulled the monumental upset over the Spartans, ranked eighth in the country at that time. Grand Valley State went into East Lansing on Nov. 2, 2007 and came away with an 85-82 double overtime victory behind double-digit scoring performances from five different Lakers.