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No. 23 Spartans Take Down Rival Michigan In Ann Arbor

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – No. 23 Michigan State (15-5, 5-4) got its first Big Ten road victory of the season Sunday night following a 77-73 victory over University of Michigan (12-9, 3-6) at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor.

The win came after dropping the previous four conference matchups on the road to Rutgers, Northwestern, Ohio State, and Indiana. The Spartans are now 3-4 on the road this season, which doesn’t count their neutral site loss to N.C. State in Cancun.

“We have three weeks of the Big Ten where we play half of our Big Ten season with three games in a week”, said head coach Suzy Merchant. “And you have other people that don’t ever have to do that once, and we do it three times. Every time we do it we have to go on the road twice in the week.”

But this game was different for the Spartans, who have dominated the rivalry between the two in-state colleges of Michigan.

“The key to success was Michigan, it was Michigan, it was the big game and the rivalry game”, said senior forward Victory Gaines. “The rivalry is real, it’s big. The key factor was really just play harder than them.”

MSU was led by the strong play of Taryn McCutcheon who made seemingly made whatever pass or shot the Spartans needed, when it was needed the most. McCutcheon, along with Jenna Allen and Shay Colley, had 14 points.

“I think this team is so versatile, our guards can post up, our posts are shooting, and I feel like that gives people a lot of problems”, said Allen. “Today I thought we shared the ball extremely well and we just found each other when we were open and we knocked down shots, which we hadn’t been able to do on the road so far. So that was really uplifting for us.

Colley scored 14 points despite shooting 2-of-13 from the field. The junior guard knocked down 9-of-10 free throws, making eight straight in the final 90 seconds of the game to seal the victory for Michigan State.

Colley also played the entire game. She clocked every single second on the floor Sunday evening in what was a big statement victory for Michigan State as they look towards their remaining slate of conference games with hopes of climbing back towards the top of the league standings.

The Spartans led 41-31 at the half and despite expanding the lead to as much as 15 points in the second half, the Wolverines battled back to make it a four-point ball game late. And after an errant turnover by the Spartans with 1:14 left to play, Michigan had a shot to make it a one possession game before freshman Amy Dilk turned it over the ensuing possession.

MSU needed every free throw from Colley at the end of the game but got the monkey of their back with the victory. The Wolverines fell three games under .500 in the Big Ten with the loss and look towards their matchup with Iowa on January 31st.

MSU will play Penn State this coming Thursday at the Breslin Center, tip-off is at 7 p.m.

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