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Summers, Lucas carry Michigan State past Ohio State

Jan 26, 2009 - 1:10 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Durrell Summers poured in a career-high 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting to lead seventh-ranked Michigan State to a 78-67 victory over Ohio State on Sunday.

Kalin Lucas scored all 20 of his points in the second half and Goran Suton chipped in 13 and nine rebounds for the Spartans (16-3, 6-1 Big Ten), who bounced back from an embarrassing home loss against Northwestern on Wednesday.

Michigan State dominated on the glass, 33-18, and finished 49 percent (28-of-57) shooting from the field.

"They made plays they needed to make down the stretch," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. "Coming into today I knew we were going to have to play 40 minutes of great basketball. They're a great team and the fact they have one loss I think says a lot about the conference."

Summers did most of his damage from beyond the arc, nailing 6-of-9 3-pointers. The sophomore from Detroit had never eclipsed 16 points before Sunday.

Summers carried Michigan State in the first half, scoring 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting while the rest of the team managed 10 on 5-of-19. Lucas took over after the break, giving the Spartans their first tie of the second half with a free throw at 12:57 and scoring 13 points in the final 10 minutes to help the team run away.

"It was a big win against a quality opponent on the road," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "We had a decent start, but OSU was shooting well. Toward the end of the game, even though Ohio State was shooting 54 percent, I was still comfortable with what we wanted to do. The game came down to two keys, (Durrell) Summers and (Kalin) Lucas. They were very good."

"Lucas made some tough shots," Matta said. "He was a key proponent in this game. He's a tremendous guard. We didn't guard as well as we should. He goes left and he goes right so you don't know what way he's going to go."

The Buckeyes used an 11-0 run in the first half to take a 24-11 advantage with 7:25 left on Evan Turner's jumper. Summers scored eight points during a 12-2 run that cut it to 26-23, but Ohio State managed to take a 31-26 lead into the half.

After freshman William Buford hit a 3-pointer to push the Buckeyes' lead to 38-30 with 17:16 remaining in the game, the Spartans embarked on a 27-12 run to take a 57-50 lead with 7:40 left.

"We kicked it around the perimeter (in the first half)," Izzo said. "They widened the zone and we penetrated it in the second. Lucas got in and made some shots and we did a good job of adjusting."

Ohio State did not threaten again.

Turner scored 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting to lead the Buckeyes (13-5, 3-4), who shot 55 percent but managed only 42 field-goal attempts.

"We needed to finish out plays in the second half," Turner said. "They made the plays needed to win and their guys hit shots. It was the little things that killed us with grabbing the rebounds. They were able to put up second shots. I thought our offensive and defensively flow was good but the rebounding kept them alive in the first half and really helped them out in the second."