Izzo lauds defense, rebounding in win over Iowa

EAST LANSING – Michigan State bounced back from an embarrassing loss to in-state rival Michigan earlier this week with a 77-66 win over Iowa fueled by defense and rebounding.

“This was a big win for us,” Tom Izzo said. “You know, they were playing pretty good. We did an unbelievable job defensively, I thought an unbelievable job rebounding the ball. Unbelievable. We had some guys that played in stretches.”

Michigan State outrebounded Iowa 46-32. The Spartans limited Peter Jok – the Big Ten’s leading scorer – to 13 points on 2 of 11 shooting.

“You know, Eron (Harris) and Alvin (Ellis) did heck of a job on Jok,” Izzo said.

Jok scored nine of team-high 13 points at the free-throw line.

As pleased as he was with his team’s win over Iowa, Izzo was disgusted with his team’s 21 turnovers.

“There is no way on God’s green Earth that a team can turn over 21 – that’s like six interceptions in football, with 15 penalties,” Izzo said. “But, I’m going to try to go past that and say that we ran the ball better.”