Unlucky No. 7: Experienced MSU hands IU another loss

Nothing remarkable happened Tuesday night in Assembly Hall.

IU hit its free throws, handled the ball decently and lost 72-58 to a better, more experienced team in its seventh-straight loss.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has a vantage point of IU basketball that few do as IU coach Tom Crean’s friend and the longest tenured Big Ten coach. He said experience was the difference for his team, which has eight upperclassmen on its roster.

“(IU) played hard; they’re missing a player or two,” Izzo said. “I saw Creek at the end of the game. I asked him how he could do that to my buddy by getting hurt.”

The Hoosiers looked more like their mid-season selves, challenging the Spartans for much of the first half.

The seasoned Michigan State team simply grounded out the game until fans looked up and saw a 20-point deficit.

Several players standing well above 6-foot-6 challenged IU in the post and midrange area for 40 minutes.

“They got some big bodies and some talented players that could probably start anywhere else in the nation,” junior guard Jeremiah Rivers said.

Izzo’s club took advantage of significant turnovers and points in the paint. It scored 40 points within the key and used 16 IU mishaps to produce 23 points.

IU did not fair as well within the paint, posting only 18 points of its own for the game.

They also saw the methodical Michigan State only turn the ball over eight times.

“I think they may have taken advantage of us in some key instances,” Rivers said. “But I think at the end of the day, if we just do the things that we talk about and that we did at certain spurts in this game, I think we’ll be OK.”

But IU kept the game close at the free-throw line, going 25-of-28 from the stripe.

IU failed to chart a field goal from 10:16 remaining in the first half to 17:01 to go in the second, and Michigan State went on to score 10 field goals during that time and opened a 44-32 lead.

Part of IU’s ability to stick around was based on the understated offensive approach of the Spartans, with the other portion a result of IU’s hard play to begin the game.

Rivers added that the Hoosiers’ cohesiveness helped them get a semblance of the fight they once showed as a team.

“I think not straying away from one another; I think being together is the biggest thing for our team,” he said.