Michigan blown out at Michigan State in regular season finale

The Michigan Wolverines lost for the fourth time in six games on Sunday, getting blown out at home by the Big Ten regular-season champion Michigan State Spartans 79-62.

Graduate center Vladislav Goldin led all scorers with 29 points and 6 rebounds. Junior big man Danny Wolf added 18 for the visiting Wolverines. Tre Hollomon led the Spartans with 20 points.

Next up for Michigan is the Big Ten Tournament on Friday in Indianapolis, where it will be the No. 3 seed.

It will play in the late game on Friday night, which is set to start 25 minutes after the No. 2 seed Maryland plays at 6:30 p.m. ET.

First half

Michigan won the opening tipoff, but MSU got the scoring started on a layup from Jaxson Kohler at 19:05. A minute later, Vladislav Goldin gave Michigan a lead on a made shot in the paint and an and-1 free throw, putting the Wolverines ahead 3-2 at the 18:04 mark. The Spartans responded with a pair of threes from Jaden Akins in a stretch where Michigan turned the ball over 4 times before the first media timeout. Goldin stopped the run with a layup at 15:43, trimming the lead to 8-5 before the first commercial break.

Coming out of the media timeout, MSU’s Carson Cooper hit a pair of free throws to push the lead to 10-5 at the 15:37 mark. Richardson’s layup at 14:47 pushed the lead to 12-5 in favor of the Spartans. 15 seconds later, Goldin split a pair of free throws to bring the game to 12-6 (14:32). MSU would respond wit than 8-0 run thanks to threes from Tre Hollomoin and Akins, followed by a Hollomon jumper to push its advantage to 20-6 at the 12:21 mark.

Nimari Burnett hit a three at 11:27 to stop the run and bring the score to 20-11. Jeremy Fears Jr. split a pair of free throws with 11 minutes left to give MSU a 21-9 lead. Goldin would score Michigan’s next six points, but the Wolverines trailed 25-15 at the under-8 media timeout. MSU went on another 8-0 run after that and would push its lead to 33-15 by the 6:35 mark of the half.

Michigan stopped the bleeding a bit with a 4-0 spurt of its own with a pair of Goldin free throws and a Tre Donaldson layup at 4:51 to narrow the deficit to 33-19, but the Spartans matched with a 4-point run of their own on a Jace Richardson layup and a pair of Frankie Fidler free trhwos to take a 37-19 lead at the 3:59 mark. Rubin Jones hit a three-pointer 15 seconds later, answered at the other end by a Fidler layup. Danny Wolf made a pair of free throws at 3:15 that cut the lead back to 15 with MSU holding a 39-24 advantage.

MSU closed the half on an 11-4 run, going into the locker room up 50-28 over the Wolverines.

HALFTIME: Michigan State 50, Michigan 28

Second half

MSU put the first two points on the board of the half on a pair of Richardson free throws, going up 52-28 with 18:04 to go. Michigan got a three-point play out of Goldin on a layup and foul, cutting the lead to 52-31. Kohler hit a three for the Spartans to push the lead back out to 24 at 55-31 with 17:07 remaining. Goldin put a layup on the board for the Wolverines, answered by a Hollomon jumper to keep the Spartans ahead 57-33. Wolf hit his first three-pointer of the night at 14:57, bringing the score to 57-36. MSU answered with a 4-0 run thanks to a Hollomon jumper and a pair of free throws from Cooper.

Goldin stopped the run with a pair of free throw makes at 13:44, narrowing the MSU lead to 61-38, followed by a layup from Wolf to. cut the lead to 21-points at 60-41 with 13:23 to go. Wolf added a free throw and a jumper, followed by Goldin and Cason layups. Goldin would add three free throws to stretch the run to 14-0, narrowing the lead to 61-50 with 9:23 to go. Richardson would end the run with a three-pointer, pushing the MSU lead back up to 14 at 64-50 with 8:56 to play.

Goldin hit a jumper at 7:28 to bring the score to 64-52, followed by Hollomon splitting a pair of free throws and scoring on a layup for the Spartans, pushing their advantage back out to 67-52 with 6:11 to go. Wolf hit a pair of free throws for Michigan at 5:52 to cut the lead down to 67-54 before Hollomon hit a jumper 12 seconds later to put MSU up 69-54. Wolf hit a shot at the paint with 4:36 remaining to cut the lead back to 13 points in favor of the Spartans (69-56).

Fears hit a pair of foul shots extend the Spartan advantage to 71-56 with 3:48 to go, followed by a 3-point burst from Wolf on a free throw and made layup. The Spartans added a 4-0 run on a layup from Richardson and two more foul shots from Fears to go up 75-59 with 2:32 left. Goldin ended the mini-run by splitting a pair of foul shots with 1:47 to go. Akins hit a jumper with 1:20 remaining to put the Spartans up 77-60. Szymon Zapala hit a shot in the paint with 40 seconds to go to push the lead back up to 19 points at 79-60.

Pippen had a pair of free throws with 37 seconds to go, cutting the lead with 79-62. That would be how the game would end.

FINAL: Michigan State 79, Michigan 62

Michigan at Michigan State box score