Northwestern University Athletics
'Cats and Spartans Square Off Sunday in East Lansing
1/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
| Northwestern (10-5, 1-1) at Michigan State (11-5, 2-1) |
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| Date | Sunday, Jan. 11 | 11 a.m. CT |
| Location | Breslin Center | East Lansing, Mich. |
| Watch | Big Ten Network (Joe Davis and Bob Wenzel) |
| Listen | ESPN 1000 and wgnradio.com (Dave Eanet and Jason Okrzesik); Sirius 91, XM 91 |
| Live Stats | Gametracker |
| Social Media | @NUMensBball  | Facebook  | @numensbball  |
| Game Notes | Northwestern | Michigan State |
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern returns to action following a mid-week bye as it travels to East Lansing to face Michigan State on Sunday. Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. Central time at Breslin Center.
Michigan State has played two games (Monday vs. Indiana, Thursday at Iowa) since the Wildcats last played against Wisconsin last Sunday.
The Wildcats are looking to bounce back from an 81-58 home loss to No. 4 Wisconsin on Jan. 4. The Badgers hit eight first-half 3-pointers in surging out to a 43-21 halftime lead. NU played much better in the second half, shooting 48.5 percent from the field after the break. Tre Demps led Northwestern with a game-high 17 points.
The matchup between the Wildcats and Spartans features two of the top defenses in the Big Ten. Michigan State ranks second in the league in scoring defense, allowing 60.1 points per game while Northwestern is close behind at 60.3 points allowed per game.
It hasn't taken freshman point guard Bryant McIntosh long to establish himself as one of the top distributors in the Big Ten. He enters the weekend ranked sixth in the league with an average of 4.7 assists per game. McIntosh handed out a career-best 8 assists in a win over Western Michigan Dec. 20 while twice handing out 7: vs. Elon (11/22) and vs. Georgia Tech (12/3).
McIntosh is one of three major conference true freshmen who are averaging over 11.5 points and 4.5 assists per game this season, joining Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell and USC's Jordan McLaughlin.
Michigan State is one of the five Big Ten schools that Northwestern will face twice this season. The teams are scheduled to meet Feb. 10 in Evanston.
Last season, the Spartans defeated the Wildcats 54-40 in Evanston, 85-70 in East Lansing and 67-51 in Indianapolis in the Big Ten tournament.
Scouting Michigan State
• The Spartans out-scored Iowa 47-22 in the second half to rally from an 11-point halftime deficit in posting a 75-61 road win Thursday. Travis Trice went 7-for-8 from 3-point range in scoring a game-high 25 points while Brandon Dawson posted 14 points and 15 rebounds.
• Trice and Denzel Valentine each average a team-leading 14.1 points per game while Dawson contributes 11.2 points and a Big Ten-leading 9.5 rebounds per contest. Michigan State leads the league 3-point field goal percentage (.418) and 3-point field goal defense (.269) as well as rebounding margin (+8.2).
• Tom Izzo has a 479-192 record in 20 seasons as the head coach at Michigan State.
UP NEXT...
The Wildcats return home Wednesday to take on in-state rival Illinois. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. with Big Ten Network providing live television coverage.
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