After dominating near the end of the first half and the start of the second half, Michigan State basketball looked as if it was going to cruise to an easy win in Columbus to kick off the new year.
Then Ohio State went on a 15-2 run and captured the lead with under 10 minutes left. Things were looking grim on the road for the Spartans, but a Xavier Booker steal and coast-to-coast and-one gave this team new life as it responded with an 8-0 run and never looked back.
Michigan State improves to 12-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference with the 69-62 win over the Buckeyes and now it'll face Washington next in East Lansing on Jan. 9 for the Izzone Alumni game.
What did we learn from this gutsy win on Friday night?
1. Jaxon Kohler can be a massive difference-maker
Scoring the first six points of the game for Michigan State, it was clear that Jaxon Kohler was playing some motivated basketball. He was finally figuring it out on the offensive end and was a reason Michigan State captured an early lead and went into the half up eight.
Kohler only played eight minutes in the first half for some reason but he looked like a man possessed on defense and on the glass. He was out-working everyone.
The junior big man played 12 minutes in the second half and scored just two more points, finishing with eight total, but he grabbed 10 rebounds, caused problems for the Buckeyes down low, and had an assist on the offensive end. The two-man game he had with Szymon Zapala was a thing of beauty.
Kohler can be a massive difference-maker this season and the Spartans need him to be what he was on Friday night consistently.