Early defense leads Michigan State to easy win over Georgia Southern

EAST LANSING – Tuesday was a day of celebration at Michigan State and the Spartans basketball team did its part.

The Spartans easily topped Georgia Southern, 86-55, at the Breslin Center to improve to 4-3 on the season.

It did so with new Michigan State football coach Jonathan Smith sitting behind the Spartans bench. Hours earlier, Smith was introduced as Michigan State’s 26th football coach during a press conference in the Breslin Center lobby.

Smith got perhaps the loudest cheer of the night when he addressed the home crowd during a timeout in the first half.

But Michigan State basketball players gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about too.

Leading by just four points with 11:58 left in the first half, the Spartans proceeded to close the half on a 25-2 run to blow the doors off of Georgia Southern.

Jaden Akins recorded a season-best 14 points to lead the way for Michigan State, going 6-for-10 from the floor.

He was joined by four other players in double figures: Tyson Walker had 13, A.J. Hoggard had 12, Malik Hall had 11 and Mady Sissoko had 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting.

As it has been for much of the year, the Spartans’ defense was once again dominant for long stretches of the game. Michigan State forced 11 turnovers and allowed just 11 points in the first half, its lowest point total allowed in a half in at least seven years. Georgia Southern shot just 5-for-27 in the first 20 minutes.

Its 3-point shooting, though, continues to be a concern. The Spartans went just 5-for-18 against Georgia Southern. It entered the game ranked outside the top 300 teams in the country in 3-point shooting, at 26.8 percent and is hitting 3′s at a rate more than 10 percentage points lower than last year through seven games this season.

Before the game, Michigan State made its second performance-based lineup change of the season: Tom Izzo swapped Tre Holloman into the lineup in place of Hoggard, plus swapped Mady Sissoko back in for Carson Cooper.

Holloman recorded a career-best 10 assists to add to his seven points. Hoggard had two early turnovers but none the rest of the game and recorded four assists.

Michigan State will now have a week break before it opens Big Ten play on Tuesday, Dec. 5 against Wisconsin.