Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Michigan St
Men's Basketball Shut Down by MSU, 59-29
1/27/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2000
By RICK GANO
AP Sports Writer
EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) - Morris Peterson and No. 9 Michigan State followed coach Tom Izzo's orders - smother Northwestern at the outset and never let the Wildcats in the game.
"Coach just talked about getting to them early," Peterson said. "If we didn't get to them early and they hit some early shots, we could be in trouble."
The Wildcats did make the first basket of the game, and in fact held a 5-2 lead after three minutes. Then Michigan State's suffocating defense took over, and Northwestern managed only six field goals the rest of the night as the Spartans rolled to a 59-29 victory.
"I thought defensively we played as well as we can play," Izzo said. "I don't feel sorry for anybody, just because Kevin (O'Neill) is a good friend. I told him that when Mateen (Cleaves) and those guys were freshmen, we got blown out ourselves".
The Spartans used a 25-0 first-half run, holding Northwestern without a field goal for a stretch of more than 17 minutes and without a point for 14 minutes. By that time it was 27-5 en route to 32-12 at halftime.
"We played on our heels," said Ben Johnson, one of four freshman starters for the Wildcats and the team's leading scorer who was held to three points. "They switched and denied and got in the passing lanes. We had a 5-2 lead and some confidence and then we basically fell apart. It's frustrating, but it's something we have to deal with."
Northwestern made just three field goals in the first half and four in the second in its second lowest scoring game of the season. The Wildcats managed just 26 points in a November loss to Evansville.
"They totally demolished us," O'Neill said after his second one-sided loss to the Spartans in five days. "They played like a team that was at the Final Four last year, and we played like freshmen."
Northwestern's Winston Blake made the game's first basket, a jumper with 19:11 to go in the first half, and then the Wildcats didn't manage another field goal until Tavaras Hardy got inside for a basket and converted a three-point play with 1:44 left - a span of 17:27.
Peterson, who finished as the game's only double-figure scorer with 19 points, had a layup, two alley-oop baskets from lob passes and a 3-pointer in the big run for Michigan State (14-5, 5-1 Big Ten).
Last Saturday, the Spartans opened the game with a 14-0 run en route to a 69-45 victory. On Thursday night, Northwestern (4-14, 0-6) finished the first half 3-for-16 from the field and was 7-for-39 for the game. Even more important, the 'Cats were just 3-for-22 from beyond the arc for the night
"You shoot 7-for-39 and you can't beat anybody," O'Neill said. "They're better than us at every position. They're older and they're deeper."
