Michigan State basketball: No Nick Ward, no problem in Ohio State win

Michigan State basketball swept the season series with Ohio State on Sunday thanks to a dominant defensive effort in the second half.

No Nick Ward, no Josh Langford and a Cassius Winston who had one of his worst games of the season and you’d think that Michigan State would lose to a team like Ohio State which was 16-8 coming into East Lansing on Sunday. Wrong.

Michigan State stood strong thanks to its seniors, putting up a huge second-half fight, beating the Buckeyes, 62-44.

On the surface, that’s an incredibly effective defensive effort, but when you really look at the numbers, you can’t help but come away more impressed since the Spartans held the Buckeyes to a total of 13 points in the second half.

Yes, Michigan State was trailing 31-25 at the half and finished the game with a huge run, beating the Buckeyes by 18 and out-scoring them 37-13 in the final 20 minutes.

The first half had all the feel of an Indiana-esque upset in the making as the Spartans were sloppy and just playing unfocused basketball, but the second half was much different. The defense was there even though Ward was out for the most part due to a hand/wrist injury that he suffered early in the game.

That meant that Kaleb Wesson had a favorable matchup with Xavier Tillman who was in foul trouble which brought freshman Thomas Kithier in. Major mismatch, right? Kithier actually held his own and played a heck of a game for the Spartans when they needed him most.

Michigan State fed off Kithier’s energy and came away with a big win.

On a day where Winston was just off his game — 13 points on 3-of-15 shooting — guys like Kenny Goins and Matt McQuaid truly stepped up. Goins finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks while McQuaid played stifling defense and finished with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists.

The Spartans are now 21-5 on the season and 12-3 in conference play, setting up a monster matchup a week from Sunday against in-state foe Michigan.