The No. 13 Michigan State Spartans came out on top of a huge Big Ten showdown Thursday night against the No. 8 Purdue Boilermakers, and they did in enemy territory, scoring a huge Quadrant 1 76-74 victory at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Michigan State basketball is now on a three-game winning streak following that statement win against a fellow national title contender. The win left Spartans head coach Tom Izzo saying that he saw a “different mentality” in his team against Purdue, per Connor Earegood of The Detroit News.
The 71-year-old Izzo also said that what the Spartans showed against Purdue was akin to that of a Michigan State victory at Mackey Arena during the days of school legend Mateen Cleaves.
The Spartans leaned on a balanced attack to take care of business on Thursday, with seven players scoring at least eight points. They were led by Carson Cooper, who put up 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the field, while Kur Teng came off the bench and fired 13 points. Jeremy Fears Jr. added 12 points and six assists for Michigan State, which had not won at Mackey Arena for the first time in 4,389 days, as noted by Earegood.
The Spartans improved to 23-5 overall and 13-4 in conference play with three more games left to play before the Big Ten Tournament.
Up next for Michigan State is a game in Bloomington this coming Sunday against the Indiana Hoosiers before a March 5 meeting with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for the Spartans' home finale. Izzo's squad closes out its regular-season schedule with a March 9 game in Ann Arbor versus the Michigan Wolverines.
