East Lansing — From the opening festivities, Michigan State’s Saturday night bout with Arkansas had the feel of a heavyweight bout. Two ranked foes, the type of matchup seen more often in March than a cold Saturday in November.
It sure felt like March at Breslin Center, where Michigan State grinded out a win against No. 14 Arkansas, 69-66, in front of a rowdy crowd. Led by an 18-point double-double from freshman forward Cam Ward and 15 points from forward Coen Carr, the Spartans turned a halftime deficit into a signature victory two games into a young season.
“That was a big time game for the beginning of November,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
Despite making a single 3-pointer on 14 attempts, No. 22 Michigan State controlled the boards and banged away in the paint to win the game. The Spartans hauled in 19 offensive rebounds as part of a 45-33 rebounding advantage. In the paint, Michigan State scored 46 points to Arkansas’ 28, the Razorbacks faring better outside with a 7-for-28 efficiency from deep.
Michigan State outscored Arkansas 33-27 in the second half 39-36 at halftime. Guards D.J. Wagner, Darius Acuff Jr. (formerly of Cass Tech) and Meleek Thomas led the way for John Calipari’s squad, with guards Trevon Brazile and Karter Knox in foul trouble.
Acuff and Thomas each finished with 16 points to lead Arkansas.
It’d be Michigan State’s own foul trouble that brought Ward out to begin with. Less than four minutes into the game, center Carson Cooper took his second foul and made his way to the bench as Ward, a freshman, checked in at the scorer’s table.
Ward, who played a smaller role in the rotation before Saturday’s game, couldn’t have expected to play so early, but he made an outsized impact right away. He and Carr paired up to lead the offense early as part of a 12-2 run. When Michigan State led 18-17 with 11:12 to play in the first half, those two had accounted for 14 of MSU’s points.
“I just knew I had to have a big game today,” Ward said. “I was due for one, you know what I’m saying. I didn’t have a good game (in) the first game, nor either exhibition. I kind of thought I was too casual.”
BOX SCORE: Michigan State 69, Arkansas 66
Casual could hardly describe Ward on Saturday. His tenacious rebounding led to 10 boards, three on the offensive glass. He scored twice off inbound passes on the baseline, taking advantage of lapses in concentration by Arkansas’ bigs.
“He killed us,” said Calipari, who made Ward a central part of his halftime speech. “… He’s just going up and getting every ball. We did three days of blocking out. How’d that help? Should have done something different, because we’d have had about the same results.”
Carr starred early on, too, scoring 12 of his 15 points in the first half. Some of that came due to his own foul trouble. Down 39-36 out of the half, Michigan State had just cut the deficit to a point when Carr took two fouls over the course of a minute. That sat him on the bench for the better part of seven minutes.
In the meantime, forward Jaxon Kohler hit another gear offensively in a 7-1 run that featured the Spartans’ only 3-pointer of the game, from Trey Fort, who made his first start at shooting guard. Michigan State took a 45-42 lead three minutes, 33 seconds into the second half, a lead it didn’t relinquish. But the game was hard fought through these stages, with long possessions and gritty battles for rebounds.
“They grinded it more than we did,” Calipari said. “I was trying to space the court and do some things, and I said screw it, grind with them.”
Michigan State (2-0) banged away inside and got to the foul line, where it hit 18 of 26 shots. Freshman wing Jordan Scott scored an easy layup off a feed from Kohler, and Ward hit both his free throws after missing both his foul shots in the first half.
When Carr returned to the court at 10:08, Michigan State led 57-52. And though his team welcomed his offensive presence, his abilities on the glass made the biggest impact. After one hard fought rebound with 5:21 to play, he drew a foul — and a standing ovation from the crowd of 14,797.
“I feel like I still left some food out there on the table for myself,” Carr said. “… But I think I had a good game. A good all-around game.”
In those final five minutes, Arkansas drew closer and closer. Thomas hit a 3-pointer and forward Noah Pringle finished a dunk and split free throws after a lane violation as part of an 8-0 run that tied the score at 66 with 1:41 to play.
At the other end, Cooper split his own free throws, but blocked a shot by Acuff looking to take the lead. Kohler hauled in the rebound and Izzo called timeout with 1:04 to play.
“We need Coop to be really good,” Izzo said, “because he’s one of the smartest players I got. He’s a guy that can cover a lot of different positions. He is a good rebounder.”
Point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., who missed all seven shots he took but finished with nine assists, drew a foul on Acuff and shot three free throws, but he only hit two. That put Michigan State up 69-66.
Arkansas looked to Thomas to try to tie the score with a 3-pointer, but he missed and his second-chance floater was off the mark. After Scott missed two free throws at the other end with 15.9 seconds to play, Arkansas had one more chance off an inbound play with 4.8 seconds left. Izzo looked to his freshmen, Ward and Scott, alongside Fears, Cooper and Carr to seal the victory.
“At the end of the day, we’re gonna play guys at the end of the game that are going to play hard, play defense,” Cooper said.
On the inbound, Brazile fired a long 3-pointer over Ward, but the freshman’s outstretched hand forced an airball to seal the victory.
Michigan State’s schedule lightens a bit next week, but only momentarily. San Jose State visits Breslin Center for Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. tip (BTN), but that’s followed by a bout next Tuesday’ against No. 9 Kentucky in the Champions Classic.
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