Michigan State women’s basketball dominates Michigan

While the men struggled on Friday, Michigan State women’s basketball thrived on Saturday in a huge rivalry win.

How about some good news on the basketball court? Michigan State women’s basketball hosted in-state rival Michigan on Saturday afternoon. The Spartans were dominant from the jump and went on to beat the Wolverines 82-61.

MSU had a slim 27-23 lead after the first quarter, but they locked Michigan up in the second quarter. The Spartans may have only scored 21 second-quarter points, but they held Michigan to just seven points this quarter. This defensive effort helped the Spartans take a 48-30 halftime lead.

The second half was much of the same as Michigan State cruised to a 21-point victory. They didn’t dominate the Wolverines in the second half, but they didn’t need to after the impressive first half.

The Spartans had four double-digit scorers and were led by DeeDee Hagemann who scored a team-high 20 points. Julia Ayrault added 19 points of her own and Jocelyn Tate and Moria Joiner had 14 and 12, respectively.

What’s next for Michigan State women’s basketball?

Michigan State extends their record to 15-5 and 5-4 in conference play this season, putting the Spartans in fifth place in the Big Ten standings. There is a three-way tie for first place in the league at one loss, so the Spartans need a lot of help to challenge for a Big Ten title.

Michigan State heads to Rutgers on Tuesday this coming week then has another home game against Minnesota the following Monday. Both of these teams are below the Spartans in the conference standings, so they have a good chance to come away with two wins in these games.

While it will be difficult to win the Big Ten, the Spartans do have their eyes set on an NCAA tournament berth. MSU has failed to make the tournament the last two seasons, but they have a good chance to do so this year. According to ESPN, the Spartans are a projected 9-seed as of Jan. 26. The Michigan team they just beat is an 11-seed, so this win likely helps a lot.

I don’t know about you all, but making the tournament would be a great accomplishment considering this is the first season under new head coach Robyn Fralick.