Michigan State basketball required an almost perfect effort to beat Purdue on Saturday afternoon and it was all thanks to strong defense and hot shooting.
What a victory It's never going to be easy and it was tense until the end, but Michigan State Basketball stepped up to defeat No. 4 Purdue in East Lansing on Saturday afternoon.
The win betters Michigan State to 19-9 overall and 10-7 in conference play, and the Spartans should now be comfortably in the NCAA Tournament. It was a resounding victory and it combined Tom Izzo with Bob Knight for the most wins ever as a Big Ten coach.
Tyson Walker played the hero with a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds remaining, sending Purdue home with a defeat.
What did we learn from this?
3. Lineup Changes Helped
Michigan State took a 5-0 lead, thanks to three and a quick bucket by Gabe Brown, instead of backing out on the big start. It was the Spartans' fastest start in weeks.
The Spartans started with Malik Hall over Joy Hauser and Julius Marbles over Marcus Bingham and it looked like the lineup came to life to start the game. And Bingham and Hauser both looked good off the bench, scoring a combined 10 points and putting up solid defenses.
Hall struggled, scoring only two points and missing some wide-open threes but Marbles had a game, against Zach Eddie, and finished with 12 points and three rebounds.
There was a ton more energy on the floor to start the game and these lineup changes were a welcome sight.