Michigan State has total effort in routing San Jose St.
Dec 20, 2007 - 7:22 AM EAST LANSING, Michigan (Ticker) -- Coach Tom Izzo could feel much better about his team's effort for a little while before thinking about their looming challenge.Raymar Morgan and freshman Durrell Summers scored 16 points apiece as No. 10 Michigan State rolled past San Jose State, 85-45, on Wednesday.
It was more of a total effort for the Spartans (10-1), who were also up big in their previous game against IPFW before settling for a 79-57 win.
Izzo was bothered about that previous effort, stating that not enough of his players showed a killer's instinct when his squad could not close out the Mastodons at home.
Michigan State did much better against San Jose State (3-5), scoring the first 12 points of the game before continuing to pile it on.
However, the coach remained cautious about the Spartans' upcoming home matchup with fifth-ranked Texas on Saturday.
"In a lot of ways, I thought there were some real good things and some poor things," Izzo said. "Unfortunately, the poor things will absolutely kill us on Saturday.
"I hope the guys aren't fooling themselves because we have a ton of work to do in two days to play against a team as good as Texas."
Leading scorer Drew Neitzel shared Izzo's high expectations for a perfect game especially with the Texas matchup around the bend.
"We know we have a top-five team coming up Saturday so we know this is our practice game for that game and coach expects us to be flawless and as players that's what we expect too because we're going to have to play a great game to win on Saturday," he said.
Goran Suton had nine points in the first half as the Spartans held a 36-21 advantage at the half.
Despite that big lead, Izzo was concerned about his team's lack of rebounding, trailing 25-21 at halftime.
"To get outrebounded in the first half, the score was not indicative of the way the game was played," Izzo said.
"We were outrebounded in the first half," point guard Travis Walton said. "In the second half, we picked things up as far as offensive rebounds. I think overall we graded out to about a 'C'."
The cushion continued to grow as Michigan State collected the first 10 points of the second half, going up, 46-21, on a jumper by Neitzel with just 2:21 expired.
The Spartans, who captured their 33rd consecutive home game against a non-conference opponent, kept up the energy, extending the lead to 71-30 with 7:21 to play on the strength of a 21-2 burst.
"Michigan State is clearly a lot better than we are but we really lost our composure in the second half," San Jose State coach George Nessman said. "They had a lot to do with that. They really pushed us out physically; they bothered us on our entries into our offense and when that happens the game will get away from you in a hurry and that's exactly what happened."
Neitzel finished with 14 points, Suton scored 11 and Walton handed out 10 assists for Michigan State, which shot 53 percent (38-of-72) and held a 46-34 rebounding advantage.
DaShawn Wright had 17 points for San Jose State, which finished with 23 turnovers.
- NCAA BB
FINAL 1ST 2ND TOTAL
--- --- -----
SAN JOSE ST 21 24 45
MICHIGAN ST (10) 36 49 85 FINAL
Dec 19 9:56 PM - NCAA BB
SAN JOSE ST 21
(10) MICHIGAN ST 36 HALFTIME
Dec 19 8:52 PM
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