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DeHaan scores 22 to lift MSU over No. 8 Xavier

Dec 10, 2009 - 4:27 AM EAST LANSING, Mich.(AP) -- Michigan State will get a second chance to prove it can handle success.

Allyssa DeHaan had 22 points and 13 rebounds to help No. 21 Michigan State beat eighth-ranked Xavier 66-53 Wednesday night, knocking off a top-10 team for the second time in a week.

DeHaan also blocked five shots, moving her into fourth place on the NCAA Division I career list with 437.

"Allyssa was very, very big for us in both halves," Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant said. "Our posts really boxed out well, our guards were really in the mix, too, to come in and clean up behind those big kids because they are very, very talented."

Jasmine Thomas had 10 points for the Spartans (6-3), who followed up a win over then-No. 4 North Carolina on Thursday with a sloppy loss to Indiana three days later.

The Spartans came out hustling on defense and outrebounded Xavier 54-30.

"We were awful defensively and we got murdered on the boards," Xavier head coach Kevin McGuff said. "That's a credit to Michigan State. They played hard from start to finish. Quite frankly, our effort was embarrassing."

Ta'Shia Phillips led the Musketeers (7-1) with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Xavier scoring leader Amber Harris was held to 10 points and four rebounds by the Spartans.

"We expected it to be a battle and a war. And I think, hopefully for us, it was maybe not so much about Xavier as much as it was that second half against Indiana when we didn't clean up the boards," Merchant said. "We really wanted to get back to a place where we could do some things, and our team really made that happen."