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EAST LANSING, Mich. – HBU men's basketball team fell to the second-ranked Michigan State Spartans on Monday evening at the Breslin Center, 107-62.
 
HBU (4-8) came out and forced the Spartans (11-1) into three turnovers in the first 1:15 (4 in 2:10) of the game with Braxton Bonds, Will Gates Jr. and Ian DuBose all recording steals. The Huskies got their first field goal at the 16:54 mark when Gates Jr. dropped in a layup off the glass to make it a 5-4 game in MSU's favor. The Spartans scored the next eight, including back-to-back threes by Miles Bridges and Cassius Winston, to lead by nine. HBU then kept things around 10 for the next seven-plus minutes with a Jalon Gates three bringing the score to 30-21 with 7:55 left in the half. Michigan State then went on a 24-12 run to take a 54-33 lead into the half after shooting 70 percent (21-of-30) in the first period.
 
In the second half, MSU pushed its lead to 32 with 13:29 to go but a Jalon Gates four-point play made it 73-47 at the 10:25 mark. The Spartans pulled away steadily the rest of the way.
 
Gates finished with a team-high 17 points, connecting on 5-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. The sophomore was also a perfect 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. DuBose scored 10 while adding six rebounds, three assists, three steals and a blocked shot. Bonds also had 10 points, three assists and three steals while pulling down four boards.
 
Freshman David Caraher led the Huskies with seven rebounds to go along with six points while Tim Myles also had six rebounds. The Huskies grabbed 24 of their 39 rebounds on the offensive end, leading to 22 second-chance points.
 
Michigan State was led by star sophomore Miles Bridges who matched his career-high of 33 points. Bridges finished 11-of-14 from the floor, 4-of-7 from deep. Nick Ward was a perfect 9-of-9 from the field to finish with 20 points.
 
The Huskies head to Nashville, Tenn. for the second time this season for their final non-conference game of the season, facing SEC member Vanderbilt on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. at Memorial Gym.

Post-Game Quotes

HBU Head Coach Ron Cottrell

"First of all, I'm pleased with our guys' effort - the way they played, the toughness that they showed against one of the best teams, obviously in the country. I thought, when you look at the size of the players on Michigan State's team, their length, their athleticism, their skill level, you put all of those combinations together and it was a tough matchup for us tonight.

But I was really pleased with the fact that our guys never backed down. They didn't stop competing. I don't know how many of you know, but we're playing without our starting post player, an all-conference player, our leading scorer, leading rebounder. And so we were even more overmatched than we would like.

I thought our guys really competed. Obviously shots weren't going in for us particularly early on, but I think Michigan State had a whole lot to do with that. It made it a little tougher to run what we want to run, in the space that we do because they push you a little bit further out on the floor, make those shots a little tougher."

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

"I was never prouder of a team than I was of their team. They were over-matched, under-sized...for a team like that to get 24 offensive rebounds and just absolutely embarrass us, you know it was a shame.

And so I'm not very happy, not very pleased. Please to take that insulting to Houston Baptist because they didn't have their whole team, in fact, I would take it just the opposite...as far as heart and courage and toughness, they played with it and we didn't. And that's what I told their coach after."