Arizona Wildcats hang on to beat Michigan State in Thanksgiving Day showdown

THOUSAND PALMS, Calif. – Eighteen wins and zero losses in November under Tommy Lloyd says the Arizona Wildcats have learned to storm out of the gate into college basketball’s long season.

On Thursday, they also showed they can do the same for a single game.

In a 74-68 victory over Michigan State during a largely made-for-TV Thanksgiving Day event at Acrisure Arena, the Wildcats shot 51.6% before halftime to take early leads of up to 15 points, then held on when Michigan State threatened throughout the second half.

All that led veteran Michigan State coach Tom Izzo to lament afterward that “the game wasn’t lost at the end, it was lost at the beginning,” while UA coach Tommy Lloyd praised just about everybody (even Izzo).

“Awesome effort by our guys in an awesome environment,” Lloyd said. “I’m just really proud of our guys because in a game like that you learn so much. We came out and started well. We were the aggressor. It kind of got flipped on us a little bit but we hung with it and just found a way to make plays down the stretch.”

Not surprisingly, Arizona leaned heavily on two veteran transfers, Keshad Johnson and Caleb Love, to pull it off in the second half. Sophomore transfer Jaden Bradley hit a 17-footer with 1:23 left to give UA a 71-66 lead while defensive heroics from Johnson and Love clinched it for the Wildcats.

With UA leading 72-68 on a free throw by Love with 24 seconds left, Johnson blocked a driving layup by Michigan State’s Tyson Walker. Then, after the Spartans rebounded the ball back, Love grabbed the ball from MSU’s Tre Holloman and fed it to freshman guard KJ Lewis, who raced downcourt for a dagger dunk with eight seconds left.

Done. The Wildcats moved to 6-0 and did so in front of a nationwide audience estimated to be about 2.9 million viewers for a telecast that followed Fox’s Thanksgiving Day NFL coverage. For what was its first-ever college basketball event, Acrisure Arena also announced a crowd of 9,112 that appeared to fill about three-quarters of the 10,815 seats.

Johnson picked up Acrisure Classic MVP honors with 13 points and 10 rebounds – the game was technically part of Acrisure’s first multi-team event – while Love had 16 points and three other Wildcats scored in double figures.

“The Johnson kid is a winner, man,” Izzo said. “He makes winning plays.”

Johnson, and the Wildcats, had to work for it especially in the final 20 minutes. As easy as their first half may have appeared, when UA led 34-19 after the first 15-plus minutes, the Spartans turned it into a different game after halftime.

Holding Arizona to just 39.3% in the second half, Michigan State went on a 9-2 run to start the second half, mostly by going inside on the Wildcats. MSU cut Arizona’s lead to three points, 45-42, after Jaden Aikens hit a 3-pointer with 15:25 to go, but Love drove in for a dunk on the Wildcats’ next possession.

The game stayed close the rest of the way, with Michigan State holding the Wildcats to just 41.2% shooting over the first 12 minutes of the second half. Arizona built back leads of up to eight points but A.J. Hoggard drove inside for a layup to cut it to 62-59 with 5:20 remaining and prompt a UA timeout.

The Spartans took a brief lead, going ahead 64-63 when Hoggard made a layup, picked up a foul and hit the ensuing and-one. The foul was also Pelle Larsson’s fifth, fouling the UA wing out of the game.

While Hoggard later made it 66-63 on a layup that followed a UA turnover, Love and Johnson scored inside to put the Wildcats back ahead. Johnson then picked up a foul with 2:09 left and, after a media timeout, hit two free throws to put UA ahead 69-66 heading into the final two minutes.

Johnson’s free throws and Bradley’s 17-footer then helped the Wildcats regain the momentum for good.

Bradley had been off to a quiet offensive start this season, but scored 13 points on Sunday against Texas-Arlington and has been among the team’s top defenders.

“People have different strengths and weaknesses,” Lloyd said. “JB’s defense on (Walker) was incredible. Then foul trouble starts dictating things that happened and I felt really comfortable with him on the court.”

In the first half, UA guard Kylan Boswell continued his hot-shooting ways by scoring 12 points on 5-for-11 shooting to help Arizona take a 40-30 halftime lead.

Boswell, who made 2 of 5 3-pointers, entered Thursday’s game shooting 64.9% (24-37) from the field, 68.2% (15-22) from the 3-point line.

Big win: Arizona basketball shakes off first-half slump, blows past Southern

Arizona enjoyed a double-digit lead for much of the first half by holding Michigan State to just 38.7% shooting while the Wildcats shot 51.6%. While the Spartans made a late push at the end of the half to cut UA's lead to just seven points, Love hit a 3-pointer with one second left before the halftime buzzer.

After his postgame news conference, in which he spent much of his time fretting over the way his guys started the game, Izzo calmly walked away. He thanked everybody and then looked at a group of non-Michigan-based writers.

“Don’t take anything away from Arizona,” Izzo said. “They were good. Really good.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Wildcats beat Michigan State in Thanksgiving Day showdown