Tre Holloman's career night sparks Michigan State basketball past Alcorn State, 81-49
EAST LANSING — No Tyson Walker, no problem.
Sophomore Tre Holloman delivered a career performance in his first collegiate start as Michigan State basketball’s star senior sat out Sunday’s 81-49 blowout victory over Alcorn State.
Holloman hit all four of his first-half shots from 3-point range and finished with 17 points on 6-for-7 shooting. That included making all five of his 3-point attempts and adding five assists and two steals in 29 minutes.
Jaden Akins added 13 points with five rebounds, and Coen Carr and A.J. Hoggard each scored 11 as the 19th-ranked Spartans played without Walker, the Spartans' leading scorer who sat out with flu-like symptoms but was on the bench in a sweatsuit.
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Coming off Friday night's 74-54 home win over Butler in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, MSU (3-2) put together a complete performance against the Braves (1-4). The Spartans shot 52.6% from the field, hit 10 of 25 from 3-point range and had nine blocks and seven steals. They also held Alcorn State to just 16-for-61 shooting and 5-for-18 on 3s.
Jeremiah Gambrell had 12 points and Jeremiah Kendall had 11 points and eight rebounds before fouling out for the Braves, who did outrebound MSU, 41-38 (and 16-10 on the offensive glass).
The Spartans next travel to Palm Desert, California, on Thursday for a much bigger test — No. 3 Arizona. The Thanksgiving tipoff is 4 p.m. (Fox).
Tre time
Walker averaged 23 points in MSU’s first four games before taking a seat for the first time this season.
Enter Holloman, who has been a defensive dynamo this season; on Sunday, he provided an unexpected boost from outside.
Akins scored seven of the Spartans’ first 14 points, but Holloman delivered back-to-back 3-pointers as part of an early 13-0 run that gave MSU a 16-2 lead.
Holloman wasn’t done, hitting two more 3s — one from each wing — for 12 points in 12-plus minutes as MSU ripped off another 19-2 run. The Spartans built a dominating 44-16 lead by half.
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound combo guard’s previous high was seven points against Buffalo on Dec. 30, 2022. He was 3-for-13 last year as a freshman and 2-for-8 this season from 3-point range while going a combined 5-for-21 in 38 college games entering Sunday.
But there was more to come: He drained another 3-pointer early in the second half, then set up Akins for another 3 before scoring his first points in the paint with 13:07 to play, putting the Spartans comfortably in front by 31 points.
Then, with a little more than 3 minutes to play, Holloman ripped his second steal of the night and raced out on the break. He saw Fears trailing him and lobbed the ball off the glass for the freshman point guard to slam it home, drawing a roar of approval from the fans with the game well in hand.
Roster shuffling
Izzo continued to start sophomore center Carson Cooper for the second straight game, but he also gave early minutes to the freshman trio of Carr, Fears and Xavier Booker.
Carr delivered three electrifying dunks in the second half. The first came on an alley-oop pass from Akins that appeared headed toward the stands until the 6-5, 220-pound forward elevated and slammed it in with two hands. The second was a high-flying leap over and through Alcorn’s Trevon Stoutermire, who fouled Carr as his head hovered above the rim.
After Carr missed the free throw, Booker grabbed an offensive board and eventually got it back for another jam. Then Carr delivered another double-pump slam in transition.
Fears finished with nine points on 4-for-5 shooting with five assists in 21 minutes. Booker had five points and five boards in 18 minutes, whle Carr hit five of six shots and grabbed three boards in 18 minutes.
Cooper had four points and five rebounds while Mady Sissoko had seven points and seven boards off the bench.
Swinging it
The Spartans were able to move the ball around the perimeter and get out and run in transition all night against Alcorn State, which won the Southwest Athletic Conference regular-season title and played in the NIT in each of the past two seasons.
MSU raced out to its big lead by pushing the pace, getting 16 points on the fastbreak while keeping the Braves from pushing the ball at all. The Spartans finished with a 25-7 edge in transition.
After getting 11 assists on 14 first-half buckets, MSU finished with 25 assists on 30 makes.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball blows out Alcorn State, 81-49
