FORT MYERS, Fla. — For a couple of minutes, the greater part of the crowd inside Suncoast Credit Union Arena feared that Michigan State phenom Coen Carr might have hurt himself just when things were getting good.

The explosive dynamo, a focal point of the Spartans, writhed in pain after injuring himself defending 12 minutes into the first half against East Carolina, and it didn’t look good when a trainer helped him off the court to get checked out. But when he returned to the court in short order, the revelry of the crowd welcomed him back.

From then on, No. 11 Michigan State all but dominated East Carolina Tuesday afternoon in a 89-56 win over East Carolina to start the Fort Myers Tip-Off. Its offense drained 13 3-pointers and put up a season-high in scoring, while its defense responded well to the physicality of East Carolina’s big forwards.

“I was a little worried about that injury because a groin injury or a pulled muscle for an athlete like that is probably the worst injury you can (have),” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I'm hoping it'll be OK, but he's a tough S.O.B.”

Michigan State will wrap up the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Thursday against No. 16 North Carolina, its third ranked opponent this month.

Jaxon Kohler and backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu led Michigan State with 16 points each, and Carr had 13 behind them. East Carolina guard Jordan Riley led his side with 13 while guard Corey Caulkner added 11.

Carr came back slowly after his injury scare, and was held off the scoreboard for the remainder of the first half after scoring the first basket of the game nearly three minutes in. When he returned in the second half, he paced the offense with 11 of the first 18 points Michigan State (6-0) scored to stave off any semblance of a comeback, already leading by 23 at the half.

And Carr gave the crowd what it wanted to see. A little less than five minutes in, Carr broke up the court as point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. dribbled up the court, lobbing a pass to Carr for a highlight dunk that’s just one of many in Carr’s tape. As he landed, he dapped up Fears and got back on defense, where the Spartans forced another empty trip by East Carolina, which finished the game with more turnovers (24) than made shots (16).

Carr’s dunk came as part of an 11-0 run that turned into a 21-1 runaway with 11:02 to play, Michigan State up 73-31.

"He's probably as good as any player in the country in transition," East Carolina coach Michael Schwartz said. "Whether it's getting the ball on a pass ahead and attacking. I mean, he is dynamic there, and then you have to keep him out of the paint."

East Carolina (2-4) had no answers for Carr, nor did it have any for Kohler, who tied a career high with his fourth 3-pointer of the game heading into the break. Most importantly, it came on perfect shooting, 6 for 6, in the game. After his 3-pointer, Kohler raised his arms up to the crowd with a wide grin.

“When you knock down the first three, like I did in the game, there's a flow that starts to develop,” Kohler said. “And one after another, it just felt better and better and better.”

East Carolina drew 11 of the next 5 points to get its deficit back under 40 points, but Michigan State stayed firmly ahead, even as its backups took the court, alongside Fears for an extended run as he notched his ninth assist to keep pace as the nation’s assists leader.

Foul trouble had shelved Fears for some of the game, his 24 minutes far lower than his usual run as the starting point guard. In the balance, Ugochukwu got an extended run at the point, and he delivered.

Ugochukwu put up a career high 16 points with a pair of assists and steals to complement. The Miami transfer had started slow in his Michigan State career but looked the part of a competent backup Tuesday against East Carolina.

“I've been starting the season pretty slow, I think, for my expectations,” Ugochukwu said. “So I think that just kind of just exploded for me right there.”

Ugochukwu scored eight points in the second half to add to his eight in the first, which aided a 47-24 lead at halftime.

In the opening frame, Michigan State suffered from some miscues — turnovers, some poor post play. But for the most part Michigan State took control of a game it was expected to win.

Michigan State started the game slow, turning the ball over five times in the first 5 1/2 minutes, once by each of its starters. Good defense got the ball, though, grinding East Carolina’s offense deep into the shot clock, forcing one violation and nearly another as it contested shot after shot. An 8-3 lead resulted at the first media timeout.

The turnovers didn’t disappear when backups took the court, either, and that allowed East Carolina to tie the score at nine with 13:30 to play. Some of those giveaways stemmed from the Spartans trying to do too much, like one with 12:35 to play when Jesse McCulloch tried to step out of a 3-pointer and into the paint, losing the ball off his hand.

Those turnover issues disappeared later in the half, Michigan State keeping the ball safe for the final nine minutes and turning it over just three times in the second.

The kind of 3-pointers that McCulloch passed up proved Michigan State’s best form of offense early. East Carolina’s swarming, aggressive defense rushed passers, while a quartet of 6-foot-10 bigs made life difficult in the paint.

Eight 3-pointers in the first half paced the offense, with six different scorers, including one from Kohler in the corner with 8:55 to play in the half to go up 23-11. That shot came in the middle of a seven minute stretch in which Michigan State outscored East Carolina 21-5, one that Kohler started with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to break the tie.

“The timing of it is very important,” Kohler said. “I don't think it adds any pressure to ‘Oh, the shot better go in, the shot better go in.’ No, it's just, you've done the work. It's an open shot. You shoot your shot just like you do with your work. And I feel like that's what a lot of us are kind of starting to unlock.”

Backups played a lot of minutes in this game. Freshman wing Jordan Scott also hit a 3-pointer, the first made of his career, in the first half as part of the big run. Redshirt freshman forward Brennan Walton, who made his first career bucket in the game’s final minutes.

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