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Michigan State clamps down on defense, outlasts Michigan

Feb 11, 2009 - 5:38 AM ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Ticker) -- Delvon Roe collected 14 points and 10 rebounds as ninth-ranked Michigan State clamped down on defense en route to a 54-42 victory over rival Michigan on Tuesday.

Kalin Lucas added 15 points for Michigan State (20-4, 10-2 Big Ten), which picked up its first win here since 2005. The last time the Spartans started 10-2 in the Big Ten was during the 2004-05 season when they advanced to the Final Four.

Michigan State held Michigan without a field goal over the final 4:47 and limited their in-state rival to 35 percent (16-of-46) shooting, including 4-of-24 from the arc.

"It wasn't pretty, but I thought it was a big win for us," Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. "I thought both teams played extremely hard defensively."

"Michigan State is a great team and we were really going to have to really play well tonight," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "They are in the middle of four games in a nine-day span, like we had, and we are three in six, but we just did not play the way we can play."

Michigan State was at its defensive best in the opening 20 minutes, holding the Wolverines to 15 points before the break on 6-of-19 shooting. Meanwhile, the freshman Roe led the way on the offense with 11 points and four rebounds at the half.

"In the first half, the difference was Delvon Roe," Izzo said. "We knew there were going to be matchup problems, us guarding their 3-point shooters with our big guys and them guarding our bigger guys with a guard. The first half, it worked to our advantage a little bit."

"We are just having some really big timing issues, people leading each other," Beilein said. "I was really disappointed, that hasn't happened to us very much. The other thing is their defense was very good."

The Spartans increased their lead to 31-19 on Lucas' jumper with 14:42 left in the game.

Michigan battled back to within 42-38 on Zack Gibson's three-point play with 4:48 remaining before going cold from the field.

"Obviously, I want to speed this learning curve of what it takes to win, what it takes to consistently win at home," Beilein said.

Wolverines top scorer Manny Harris was held to two points through the first 33 minutes and finished 2-of-10 from the field and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc for seven points. Harris entered the contest averaging 17.5 points - the second highest mark in the Big Ten.

DeShawn Sims was the only Michigan (15-10, 5-7) player who seemed to be able to generate any offense, pouring in 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting. No other Wolverine managed more than two field goals.

"Manny Harris has the most respect from me, my staff and our team," Izzo said. "I thought Travis (Walton) did an incredible job with help from other people. The only guy we couldn't stop pretty well was DeShawn Sims, one of their good players."

Michigan has lost seven of its last nine and has to play four of its last six games on the road.

The Spartans were without second-leading scorer Raymar Morgan, who missed his third straight game due to illness. The junior forward is expected back when Michigan State faces Purdue on February 17.