Michigan State Basketball: 5 takeaways from resilient win over Rutgers

The second half was all Michigan State basketball on Wednesday night in a resilient comeback effort at home against a pesky Rutgers team.

Tom Izzo refuses to lose to Rutgers.

Even on a night when Michigan State looked like it were going to fall apart because of Nick Ward’s absence, the Spartans were resilient in the second half and fought back to take a lead with about 12 minutes left and never looked back.

This was Rutgers’ chance to pull off a mammoth upset, but not even an 11-point second-half lead was enough to keep the Spartans down as they went on a 20-3 run and put the Scarlet Knights away, sending them home with a tough loss.

What did we learn from Michigan State’s resilient victory?

5. Rebounding won’t be an issue even without Nick Ward

Rutgers entered Wednesday’s game as one of the best rebounding teams in the Big Ten and Michigan State was No. 1 in the conference in rebounds per game. But the Spartans were without Nick Ward for the first time on the season and it didn’t seem to matter.

The Scarlet Knights held a distinct size advantage and averaged around 40 boards per game coming in while one of the conference’s top rebounders was out for the Spartans, and Michigan State still managed to dominate the glass.

In fact, the Spartans grabbed 45 rebounds to Rutgers’ 31 and Michigan State had 14 offensive boards which led to some big-time second-chance points — including the game-tying 3-pointer by Matt McQuaid in the second half.

With or without Ward, this team has shown rebounding will never truly be an issue.