Friday Big Ten Recap: Michigan Beats MSU

Friday night was a big one for the league, as a top 10 Michigan squad went on the road to battle another top 10 team in Michigan State. Add in the fuel of a rivalry and it figured to be quite a night.

Let’s take a look at what happened.

Advertisement

–No. 3 Michigan Wolverines 83, No. 7 Michigan State Spartans 71

Heading into tip, most books had this as a pick ‘em or a slight lean toward Michigan. And it was easy to see why, with both squads entering the night with impressive records. Michigan sat at 19-1 and was coming off a massive win over Nebraska on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Michigan State was 19-2 and had won seven straight. Seeing teams with records like that in late January is rare enough, but a combined 38-3 in a Friday night rivalry game? It’s about as good as you’re going to get in college basketball.

And the game itself mostly lived up to the hype. Michigan came firing out of the gates and jumped out to an 18-point lead by the break. However, Michigan State fought back after the break, eventually not only erasing the Wolverines’ lead, but grabbing it themselves around the seven-minute mark of the second half. It was anyone’s game at that point, but Michigan got play after play from Yaxel Lendeborg, who finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, en route to victory. Morez Johnson was also huge on both ends of the floor and finished with 12 points and four rebounds. Elliot Cadeau had 17 points and six assists, as Michigan grabbed a 12-point road win.

Advertisement

For Michigan, it’s hard to understate the significance of this one. It was a gritty win that silenced many of the team’s critics. After Tuesday night’s win over Nebraska, many claimed Michigan had only won because the Cornhuskers were shorthanded. And while we’ll never know if that was true, the Wolverines proved they can play with anyone in any location on Friday night. This was about as raucous of a crowd as you’ll see in college basketball and Michigan was able to overcome it against a top…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/friday-big-ten-recap-michigan-135036222.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-01-31 13:50:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.