Michigan State basketball's offense sputters in 70-62 loss at home to Wisconsin

EAST LANSING — Malik Hall looked ready to take over.

Michigan State basketball’s offense continued to look lifeless for long stretches Tuesday night, though Wisconsin failed to do much until jumping ahead by 10 early in the second half.

Hall spun. He dunked. He rebounded.

And then he turned it over as the Badgers turned their attention to him, sliding across the floor after a triple-team sent the ball the other way. The Spartans’ comeback stalled from there.

No. 14 Wisconsin handed No. 17 MSU its second straight loss and another home defeat, 70-62, at Breslin Center in another game in which many of the things the Spartans hoped to do failed to come about.

Most importantly to Tom Izzo, show the type of toughness the Hall of Fame coach historically gets from his players. And he thrust the blame squarely on himself for not yet finiding a way to draw it out of this group after "getting punked from the beginning" by the Badgers.

"I get credit for doing a good job sometimes, so I should get blamed for doing a bad job," Izzo said. "That, to me, was not a very well-coached team tonight. So I'm taking full responsibility. ...

"We did not play with enough passion. I don't know why, but that's my job."

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MSU (17-6, 8-4 Big Ten) shook off a brutal first-half start by shooting 50% after halftime to pull back within a point midway through the second half on a Joey Hauser tip-in. But the Badgers took control as All-America and Big Ten Player of the Year candidate Johnny Davis scored seven of his game-high 23 points in a 3-plus minute span to help keep the Spartans at bay.

Marcus Bingham Jr. led MSU with 15 points, while Hall had 12 points. Joey Hauser finished with eight points and eight rebounds, and A.J. Hoggard added seven points and seven assists. MSU hosts Indiana at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on Fox.

Tyler Wahl and Chucky Hepburn each scored 11 and Brad Davision added eight for Wisconsin (19-4, 10-3).

"I'm obviously extremely proud of my group in that locker room," Badgers coach Greg Gard said, "just the grit and perseverance and togetherness that they showed."

The offensive blahs that plagued the Spartans in Saturday's 84-63 loss at Rutgers multiplied in the first half against the Badgers.

MSU went 4-for-20 to start the game after Max Christie's miss with 3:21 to go before half, turning the ball over six times in the first 12-plus minutes. The Spartans had visible communication issues at times and struggled to penetrate from the outside.

Wisconsin, like many of MSU's recent opponents, feasted in the paint. The Badgers built a 21-13 lead at the 4-minute mark by outscoring the Spartans inside 16-6 to that point. However, Gabe Brown got fouled on a jumper and hit a pair of free throws, then Marble scored down low and Bingham hit a pair of layups. The Badgers banged home a pair of 3-pointers in the final 2 minutes, but Bingham banked in a deep jumper at the buzzer to keep MSU within 29-23 at halftime.

“I thought they played hard as hell the first half,” Izzo said of Wisconsin. “I thought we were very, very, very, very soft. ... We gotta figure out how we're gonna get a little tougher. And I haven't had a lot of teams that I had to worry about that with."

Bingham had 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting. The rest of the Spartans went 4-for-17 combined. Their defense also helped, holding Wisconsin to 3-for-11 from behind the arc as the Badgers shot 41.4% thanks to their post play and getting six second-chance points off four offensive boards.

Wisconsin continued to control the flow early in the second half. Davison’s 3-pointer at the 16-minute mark put the Badgers up 10 and stifled much of the Breslin crowd.

But Hall quickly answer with a 3 of his own to stave off a bigger run, then Gabe Brown hit another on MSU’s next possession after a Wisconsin layup to add some energy. It wasn’t until Hall’s driving dunk into traffic with 13:53 to go that the Spartans found a different spark, though.

Hoggard followed with an open 3-pointer after another Badger layup. Then Hall put the ball on the floor, made a spin move on the right block and elevated for a two-handed dunk that pulled MSU back within two points. A Hauser tip-in a few minutes later pulled the Spartans within a point at 45-44 with 9:06 left.

"We brought some energy and had a couple of big plays there, some excitement. The crowd helped us out a little bit and got some momentum going," Hauser said. "Those are plays that when you kind of string some together where you can get a run going, and that's what we kind of did."

But the Spartans failed to get two loose-ball defensive rebounds just after Hauser's basket with a chance to tie the game or take a lead, and both Hall and Tyson Walker committed turnovers that siphoned the rhythm MSU had built. The Badgers kept their lead with Davis scoring seven in a row for them, then Davison draining a 3-pointer with 5:28 left to lengthen it back to 55-49.

"We cut it to one, and guys were just playing with a lot of energy, a lot of effort out there," Brown said. "But it's all about finishing. And that's one thing we've been harping on the entire year. ... And at that certain point, we didn't finish."

The Spartans rallied to even it 28-28 in the paint by the end of the game and finished with 12 turnovers, but they went just 3-for-14 from 3-point range and managed just a 33-32 edge on the glass.

"We have to do a better job. And so I am putting it all on me, I really am. And I'm going to figure out a way," Izzo said. "I've had coaches call (and say), 'Don't ever blame yourself.' Check this out: I have to do a better job. If the team doesn't play with the toughness and tenacity, that falls on my shoulders. And I'm going to take every bit of it and figure out a way that we do it differently hopefully on Saturday."

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball sputters in 70-62 loss to Wisconsin