Michigan State Basketball: Cassius Winston grew up in Northwestern win
Michigan State basketball needed a major second-half effort from Cassius Winston to come back from 27 points down, and he stepped up big-time.
Down 43-16 near the end of the first half, Michigan State looked defeated. Miles Bridges was having one of worst games of his career and the Spartan defense was nowhere to be found. On top of that, Cassius Winston was playing poorly and the leaders were crawling back into their shells.
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Everything Northwestern was throwing up was going in and the opposite could be said for the Spartans.
Heading into the half with a 22-point deficit, Michigan State needed one of the best halftime speeches from Tom Izzo to turn things around. Or maybe the Spartans needed start relying on its leaders to step up.
Winston did just that.
With Bridges continuing to struggle and suffer through foul trouble, Winston stepped up, nailing big three after big three. He finished 4-for-6 from 3-point land and scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half to go along with seven assists and nine rebounds — yes, he was a menace on the glass, in the second half especially.
The sophomore point guard put the team on his back to engineer the monster comeback and Izzo even said afterward he was impressed with how he was outspoken in huddles and proved his leadership vocally.
And then there’s this quote from the sophomore point guard that proves he’s an incredible leader.
Cassius Winston never believed MSU was out of it: "Honestly, this team, we were in the locker room and we were ready. Sucked we were down like that but there was no point … you could see it in our eyes, that we didn’t doubt we could come back."
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) February 17, 2018
The team will go as far as Winston will lead them. Michigan State is lucky enough to have a sharpshooting point guard like Winston who doesn’t shoot often, but when he does, there’s a good chance he’s making the basket. On top of that, he’s not often fazed — even when down by 27 points on the road.
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Not many second-year players can step up in those types of situations and Winston looked like Kalin Lucas out there, making big plays and clutch shots to bring his team back from the brink. Michigan State should feel good about where it stands thanks to Winston’s leadership.