Wildcats Fall Short at Michigan State
Feb. 9, 2008
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Craig Moore continued his stellar play against Michigan State, scoring a game-high 21 points Saturday evening but it wasn't enough as the 11th-ranked Spartans were able to distance themselves from Northwestern late for a 70-55 victory at the Breslin Center. Moore, who had 28 points in the teams' first meeting on Jan. 24, finished 7-for-12 from the field and 5-for-9 beyond the arc. Drew Neitzel scored 13 of his 21 points consecutively for the Spartans during a first-half stretch to lead MSU (20-3, 8-2). Both teams came out of the gates slowly, as Northwestern (7-14, 0-10) didn't score a basket in the first 6:25 but finally trailed just 6-4 when Jeff Ryan converted on a layup. The Wildcats eventually took a 13-12 lead on a 3 from Moore. When Coble slammed home a dunk, the Wildcats led 18-14. After not attempting a shot for the first 12:35, Neitzel hit five straight attempts, including three 3-pointers, to help turn a four-point deficit into a 35-29 halftime lead. The Wildcats trailed by nine at 43-34 before eventually drawing back to within 47-46 on back-to-back 3s from Moore. NU was still within four at 54-50 with 8:44 to go following Sterling Williams' layup, but Michigan State never surrendered the lead. The Spartans shot 51.9 percent from the field to Northwestern's 38.5 and had a 33-26 edge on the boards. Jeremy Nash hauled in a career-high 10 boards for the Wildcats. Kevin Coble added 14 points and Michael Thompson had 10 for Northwestern. The Wildcats return to action at 8 p.m. Wednesday when they host Ohio State at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The Associated Press contributed to this report |
|
