Second Half Effort Pushes MSU Basketball Past Oakland 77-58

Playing at Little Caesars Arena in Downtown Detroit, the No. 20 ranked Michigan State Spartans basketball team used a second half surge to beat the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies 77-58 on Tuesday night. Despite being about 55 miles further from the venue than their competitors, the Spartans appeared to have many more fans in attendance wearing the green and white school colors. With that being the case, it’s safe to say that the majority of the crowd went home happy that their team won their ninth game of the season. In what has become somewhat a tradition between Head Coaches Tom Izzo of MSU and Greg Kampe of Oakland, who are friends off the court, both wore Christmas sweaters to celebrate the holiday season match up. This year, Izzo mentioned that Kampe bought the Grinch faced sweaters for the two to wear. Oakland kept the game close during the first half of play and only trailed MSU by one point at halftime. The Spartans shot fairly well, making 42% of their field goals in the opening half, but were plagued by turnovers, committing seven compared to just one by the Grizzlies in the first 20 minutes. The hot shooting performance...