Michigan State basketball: Official box score from Tennessee loss

If you’re looking for stats from the Michigan State basketball loss to Tennessee on Sunday night, we’ve got you covered.

Michigan State basketball lost its first game on Sunday night but thankfully it didn’t count. The Spartans fell to Tennessee in East Lansing, 89-88.

The Spartans fell behind 17-1 early, but they were able to battle back and pull within three by halftime. You have to love to see that kind of fight from this team. But let’s just hope that slow starts aren’t the start of a trend. Michigan State needs to avoid these slow starts because they’ve been killers in seasons past.

Many fans who didn’t catch the game (or even some who did) are probably curious to see how Michigan State played. The box score doesn’t tell the full story, but we have it for you.

Here’s the MSU vs. Tennessee box score, via Tennessee’s official athletic site.

Michigan State box via utsports.com

Tennessee box via utsports.com

Clearly the Spartans were better in the second half, scoring 51 points and shooting 45 percent from the floor. They also shot 80 percent from the free throw line in the final 20 minutes which is something you definitely want to see moving forward.

Two players really killed the Spartans as Dalton Knecht had 28 points and Jordan Gainey had 20. Allowing a combined 48 points between two guys in a one-point loss is a tough pill to swallow.

Tyson Walker, Malik Hall, Jaden Akins, and AJ Hoggard led the team in scoring like we all expected and Coen Carr chipped in nine points off the bench. We didn’t see much of Xavier Booker and Jeremy Fears Jr. only played 12 minutes and scored two points. Booker did show his range and versatility with a 3-pointer. Mady Sissoko and Carson Cooper each scored five points while both also added four rebounds. Hall led the team with 11 boards.

The 17 turnovers by Michigan State and 89 points allowed need to be cleaned up, however.