Michigan State Basketball: 3 takeaways from blowout win over Michigan

Michigan State basketball bounced back from a tough loss to Illinois on Tuesday to dismantle Michigan in the Breslin Center. What’d we learn?

Right from the opening tip of Saturday afternoon’s Michigan vs. Michigan State basketball rivalry game, you just knew it was going to be a dogfight. The Wolverines took a six-point lead early on and it looked like the Spartans were going to be in for a battle.

Michigan State battled back to take a four-point lead into halftime and then it came out of the locker room red-hot. The Spartans built the lead to double-digits early in the second half and then cruised to an 83-67 blowout win in East Lansing.

It was good to see the crowd get into it and Breslin Center be the loudest it’s been in a couple of years. Plus, this was a nice bounce-back win after a heartbreaking one-point loss at Illinois.

What’d we learn from the Spartans’ blowout win?

3. Gabe Brown, Max Christie got confidence back

For a few games, both Max Christie and Gabe Brown were struggling to conjure up some confidence. Both were struggling offensively and it led to a tough loss at Illinois and at home against Northwestern.

On Saturday afternoon, both got some much-needed confidence back.

Gabe still didn’t shoot much and missed some shots early, but it was clear in the second half that he was getting some confidence back. He threw down a wide-open breakaway dunk and used that energy generated from the crowd to hit a massive three from way behind the arc. He finished 4-for-8 from the floor with nine points and that’s a step in the right direction.

Christie, on the other hand, was red-hot from the get-go. He finished with 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting and showed some fire at the end of the game, getting into it with Moussa Diabate.

Michigan State needs these two to get hot.