[81alum]

Jones's shots were contested.  The officiating was also very suspect.  They called numerous charges in which the MSU player was not set or inside the restricted area.  And those charges are turnovers, which contributed to our 20 turnovers to their 6.  This is what MSU does, but they got some help from the officials.

Against all of those turnovers, we out rebounded them 51 to 31.  We had 15 O boards to their 6.  That went a long ways to making up for the turnovers.

Both teams made 24 baskets.  12 of ours were assisted, only 7 of theirs.  We were clearly passing better than they did.

We shot 39%, they shot 35%.

They had the edge with three pointers.  Both teams made five but they did it with 14 shots while we took 19.

We made 14 points in free throws, they made 9.

We had 36 points in the paint to their 28.  That is very impressive considering their size inside and their take-it-to-the-rim guards.  We were better on that front.

They had 14 points off turnovers, we had 4.  It could have been worse considering they had a 14 turnover advantage.

All in all, we led in just about every category except turnovers, which is what we would have expected given MSU's style of play.  And this was exacerbated I think by Williams going down with 3 minutes left.

We outplayed the team that the computer rankings had as #2 in the country, with Carrington and Dodson out, with Williams going down, and with freshmen getting 58 minutes of playtime.  At the beginning of the season we wondered if the freshmen could be integrated into the team this year.  And the answer is emphatically yes.  They will just get better.

The last 3 minutes was not pretty, but the team was in shock at Williams going down, and they found a way to win.

[81alum]

Jones's shots were contested.  The officiating was also very suspect.  They called numerous charges in which the MSU player was not set or inside the restricted area.  And those charges are turnovers, which contributed to our 20 turnovers to their 6.  This is what MSU does, but they got some help from the officials.

Against all of those turnovers, we out rebounded them 51 to 31.  We had 15 O boards to their 6.  That went a long ways to making up for the turnovers.

Both teams made 24 baskets.  12 of ours were assisted, only 7 of theirs.  We were clearly passing better than they did.

We shot 39%, they shot 35%.

They had the edge with three pointers.  Both teams made five but they did it with 14 shots while we took 19.

We made 14 points in free throws, they made 9.

We had 36 points in the paint to their 28.  That is very impressive considering their size inside and their take-it-to-the-rim guards.  We were better on that front.

They had 14 points off turnovers, we had 4.  It could have been worse considering they had a 14 turnover advantage.

All in all, we led in just about every category except turnovers, which is what we would have expected given MSU's style of play.  And this was exacerbated I think by Williams going down with 3 minutes left.

We outplayed the team that the computer rankings had as #2 in the country, with Carrington and Dodson out, with Williams going down, and with freshmen getting 58 minutes of playtime.  At the beginning of the season we wondered if the freshmen could be integrated into the team this year.  And the answer is emphatically yes.  They will just get better.

The last 3 minutes was not pretty, but the team was in shock at Williams going down, and they found a way to win.