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No. 25 Michigan State beats EMU

Dec 18, 2014 - 7:37 AM East Lansing, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Bryn Forbes totaled 14 points and Travis Trice chipped in 13 as No. 25 Michigan State took down Eastern Michigan by a 66-46 count at Breslin Center.

Marvin Clark, Jr. picked up 11 points with six rebounds for the Spartans (8-3), who next face Texas Southern on Saturday. They also received 10 points and nine boards from Matt Costello.

Raven Lee led the way with 12 points for the Eagles (8-2). Anali Okoloji had seven points and five rebounds in a losing cause.

"Obviously, any time you lose, it's extremely tough," said Eastern Michigan coach Rob Murphy. "I thought Michigan State did a great job defending us and taking away our first few actions on offense. Defensively, they were very sound. I thought we did a poor job early on of guarding the three-point line; that's not our character."

Michigan State assumed control of the contest with an extended run, 23-6, in the latter stages of the first half which turned a one-point lead into an 18- point bulge.

Costello got the burst going with the first four points, Gavin Schilling added a dunk, then Trice later connected from long distance to make it 22-12 with 5:46 to play.

Trice and Forbes connected on back-to-back triples which extended MSU's edge to 30-16, and Clark's layup produced a 34-16 margin with 1:44 left prior to intermission.

Michigan State's edge was 34-19 at the break, but EMU made a brief surge and closed within 12, 43-31, on a Brandon Nazione bucket.

Denzel Valentine countered with a basket ahead of five in a row by Forbes, the last of it another trey, and it was 50-31 for the Spartans with 11:57 remaining.

Eastern Michigan couldn't shrink its deficit below double digits, and trailed by as many as 24 points in the final 80 seconds.

"There were way more positives than negatives because even though it was a 20 point win, that's a damn good team," said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. "They're going to win a lot of games this year, I really believe that. They're well coached and they play hard."

Game Notes

Michigan State has won 29 of the 32 all-time meetings, including 19 of 20 in East Lansing ... Eastern Michigan shot slightly less than 19 percent in the first half and finished at 22.6 percent efficiency (14-of-62) for the contest, including 4-of-22 from beyond the arc ... The Spartans fared a little better, shooting 37.1 percent from the floor (20-of-53), and totaled 24 points in the paint.