Michigan State hits season-high 14 3-pointers in 82-59 rout of UCLA

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Tom Izzo asked fans to trust him to get his Michigan State basketball team in order after a recent skid put the Spartans outside of the Big Ten championship picture. His team backed up those words Tuesday night in one of the most thorough performances of the Big Ten season.

Fueled by a radiant first half and a season-high 14 3-pointers, No. 15 Michigan State blew out UCLA, 82-59, Tuesday night at Breslin Center. Jeremy Fears Jr., Jordan Scott and Coen Carr combined for 43 points and nine 3s as the Spartans led big the entire second half.

Michigan State (21-5, 11-4 Big Ten) caps a two-game home stand against Ohio State on Sunday at 1 p.m. (CBS). The Spartans sit in a tie for fourth place in the Big Ten with Purdue Nebraska, at 11-3 in Big Ten play, is in the middle of a game at Iowa as of publication.

Carr and Fears each had 16 points for Michigan State while Scott and Carson Cooper (12) finished in double figures. Fears dished 10 assists and Jaxon Kohler led a 37-27 edge on the glass with 10 rebounds. The Spartans picked up 20 points in the paint and 12 on second-chance shots. On 55 shot attempts, Michigan State made 29, shooting 14 for 27 from 3-point range.

Whether jet-lagged or overmatched, UCLA (17-9, 9-6) trailed on the far side of double digits for most of the game, with Tyler Bilodeau’s 20 points leading the way and guard Skyy Clark following suit with 12.

After drawing a 43-23 lead at halftime that saw Fears hit a trio of 3s, the point guard from Joliet, Ill., wasted little time setting his career high with a fourth make from deep on his first attempt of the second frame. His 16 points mark 14 straight games in double-digit scoring.

Xavier Booker, making his Breslin Center return since transferring to UCLA in the offseason, made his first basket of the game to follow four points from teammate Bilodeau. The two-year Spartan finished the game with two points and two rebounds in 25 minutes. He also fed Bilodeau a one-handed assist on the block six minutes into the second half.

Much like the first half, though, little went wrong for Michigan State in the second. Shots fell, like an elbow jumper from Carr and a couple of 3s from Kur Teng. Carr got another dunk a little over six minutes in, even using his explosive hops for a block earlier in the frame. When a UCLA timeout stopped play at 12:51, Michigan State led 62-38 to tie what was then a game-high lead.

More than four minutes of scoreless basketball by each team gave way to back-to-back baskets for Michigan State, one a hook from Kohler and the other Teng’s third 3 of the half. That made three shooters with at least three 3s for the Spartans, a far cry from recent 3-point shooting struggles. Those came with better defense at the other end, allowing UCLA to make eight 3s all game. After Teng’s third make, MSU led 69-41 with 7:42 to play.

Carr made that a 10-0 run on the other side of a timeout with Michigan State’s 13th trey of the game, tying a season high. That made for six Spartans with a made 3-pointer in the game. After a 7-0 burst for UCLA, Carr hit another 3 to set a new season high at 14.

That burst included a pair of free throws from UCLA reserve Steven Jamerson II, who is a former Michigan State student who tried to be a manager for Izzo’s team before heading back to his native California for a Division I spot at San Diego. Now a senior, he transferred to UCLA this offseason. He also dished an assist in the game.

A feel-good story took a bizarre turn with 4:26 to play when Jamerson gave a hard foul to MSU center Cooper as he tried to jam a fast-break dunk. Jamerson reached up to block the shot and Cooper went down hard at the foot of the basket. He popped up, got right in Jamerson’s face and had to be held back by a teammate. Meanwhile, UCLA coach Mick Cronin pointed Jamerson down the tunnel in anger.

Jamerson received a flagrant 1 foul for the play on Cooper, and both received unsportsmanlike technical fouls. After free throws, Michigan State led 80-50.

Up big, Michigan State went experimental in the final four minutes, with Scott playing point guard, an apparent dress rehearsal in case Fears runs into trouble down the stretch now that Divine Ugochukwu is out for the season with a foot injury.

After a 3 from Eric Dailey Jr. made it 9-7 UCLA 4:17 into the first half, Kohler and Fears led a 26-3 run that completely took over the game for Michigan State. And Kohler’s contributions were dazzlers. One was a big 3 he’s been wanting to see fall for the better part of his month-long slump. His feed to Carr may have been his best pass of the season for a 6-foot-9 forward who usually goes up with it. His seven boards led a 21-9 advantage in the first half.

Fears got going, too, after an off night at Wisconsin. He hit two 3s during the run, including a corner strike with 11:50 to play, and added another later in the half to tie a career high three 3-pointers, last achieved Dec. 29 against Cornell. As a team, Michigan State hit eight 3s in the half — meanwhile, UCLA hit nine shots, period. Freshman wing Scott also hit a trio of first-half 3s for MSU on perfect shooting.

Even the backups got involved. After the rim rejected another Carr dunk — a reverse back-scratcher — the ball popped out to third-string shooting guard Trey Fort, who buried the second-chance 3 that forced a second first-half timeout by Cronin. As Fort headed to the huddle, teammates smacked his chest and hyped him up.

Michigan State led 33-14 with 5:07 remaining in the half when UCLA point guard Donovan Dent scored a layup to snap eight minutes of scoreless basketball for the Bruins. Cooper got it right back, though, with a stretchy layup for an and-one, then buried two more free throws for a personal 5-0 run that pushed the lead to 38-14.

After the Bruins led 9-7 in those early minutes, the Spartans outscored them 36-14, allowing just nine made baskets on 28 shots. That halftime lead was Michigan State’s first since a blowout win over Maryland on Jan. 24, snapping a streak of five slow starts that led to three losses.