Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from painful win over High Point

It wasn’t pretty and it was actually rather painful, but Michigan State basketball pulled away late to pick up a win over High Point.

Let’s just forget this game ever happened. Deal? Before we can do that, we need to talk about what we learned from this excruciating Michigan State basketball win over High Point, 81-68.

From the get-go, it was obvious that there was very little energy left in this team after a holiday break and just two games in 18 days while also being down three regular rotational players — and two starters. This team was rusty, starting out the game 0-for-8 from the floor.

Michigan State was down 3-0 about 4:30 into the game before going on a 7-0 run and finally showing signs of life. The Spartans trailed by one at halftime before pulling away late thanks to some key veterans but it was sketchy the whole way through.

Simply put, this game was rough to watch.

What did we learn from the Spartans’ tough win?

3. Joey Hauser gained a ton of confidence

On a day when Marcus Bingham Jr. and Max Christie were missing, the Spartans needed someone to step up and it happened to be Joey Hauser who had taken his lumps over the past season and a half. He had struggled mightily since last Christmas, but it looked like he turned the corner against High Point on Wednesday afternoon.

Hauser was the toughest guy on the team from the get-go, rebounding well on both ends of the court and hitting some shots. It looked like we got the Hauser of old against High Point.

The veteran forward finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and zero turnovers while shooting 5-for-8 from the floor and 3-for-5 from deep. He was confident and did a little of everything to inject some life into the team and without him, MSU may not win this game.

Let’s see if Hauser can build on this.