But Big Ten picture aside, Michigan State is playing for seeding in the NCAA Tournament.
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The last time Penn State faced Valentine it was his first game back following a four-game absence recovering from a “minor” knee surgery. He called out his team for lacking energy in Tuesday’s 81-62 win at Ohio State, but on Sunday lauded MSU’s “stellar” defense and 51-33 rebounding domination. They host MI this evening before finishing up their regular season with road games at Minnesota and at No. 20 Purdue. The Spartans have dominated the series with Penn State, winning the last seven regular-season meetings, including a 92-65 drubbing on January 10, 2016. 4 Iowa and then-No.
A late comeback attempt was snuffed out as Penn State dropped its first game of the season. “And, we didn’t do that”. Chambers had to be held back by his coaching staff as he tried to charge toward officials a couple of times before leaving the court. “We’re trying to buck the system of being the brunt of everybody’s jokes”.
After the Spartans’ miss-filled start, they connected on 14 of 18 shots. A 13-3 run put the Spartans up 22-9, and they only expounded on that lead, stretching it to 28-9 with eight minutes left in the half after scoring 11 unanswered.
With five minutes to play in the first half, Chambers had seen enough of what he thought was unfair officiating.
Spartans senior shooting guard Bryn Forbes scored 15 points and senior center Matt Costello notched his 11th career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. David Kohan (Sydney, Australia) and Christian Lutschaunig (Richboro, Pa.) won a tough tiebreak point against the ranked doubles pair (No.25) of Kaplan and Westergaard to pull out the early Penn State lead.
“I love it when Coach comes out and battles for us”, Garner said.
Penn State: Brandon Taylor entered the game as the team’s leading scorer and rebounder. But senior forward Brandon Taylor (16.6 points per game) could do little against Davis and ended up fouling out with two points. While he was kept away from the court in the second half, one of his assistants was called for a technical foul.
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NOTES: The Spartans are averaging 79.5 points per game, the highest average in Tom Izzo’s 21 years as head coach.
