Michigan State feasts in paint for Thanksgiving win over North Carolina

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A “schedule from hell” has yet to burn Michigan State’s men’s basketball team.

First came Arkansas, which fell at Breslin Center. Then Kentucky, at Madison Square Garden last week, which fell in a blowout. Thanksgiving at the Fort Myers Tip-Off brought all Michigan State could eat in North Carolina. And yet the Spartans still walked out of Suncoast Credit Union Arena with a 74-58 win.

Four Michigan State players scored in double digits, led by point guard Jeremy Fears Jr.'s 15 points and another 17 from center Carson Cooper. Fears also dished seven assists, which would've been higher without a number of missed layups in the first half. And forward Jaxon Kohler had 11 of Michigan State's 37 rebounds, which led North Carolina by seven.

North Carolina star Caleb Wilson scored 16 points, 10 in the first eight minutes of the game, but didn't score a basket for more than 20 minutes from then into the second half.

Exactly one year ago to the day, these two teams met in the Maui Invitational, the end of a three-day slog that proved a turning point for a Michigan State team that would finish the year as a Big Ten champion that ran all the way to the Elite Eight. North Carolina had withered, a preseason hype idol having barely snuck into the tournament for a quick out.

This time around, both teams came in as expected contenders come March. Led by a cast of four core returners and a few key pieces around them, Michigan State (7-0) ranked 11th in the latest AP poll, while North Carolina (6-1) ranked 16th with expected lottery NBA pick Caleb Wilson at the helm.

Wilson wasted no time with introductions Thursday, scoring a Thanksgiving feast of 10 points in the first eight or so minutes of the game, but his scoring faded after that, a combination of MSU forward Cam Ward and Cooper working on the freshman phenom.

Wilson finally broke out of his quiet spell with 11:29 to play in the second half — going more than 20 minutes between baskets as he got the lid off with a layup. Cooper and Ward worked on him early to keep the ball out of his hands.

And Cooper did more than defend. He drew the first seven points of the second half for Michigan State — 14 in the game to go with six rebounds — as North Carolina forward Henri Veesaar, a transfer from Arizona, matched him point-for-point to keep a five-point difference early in the second half.

A physical game in the first half continued to be decided at the rim in the second, where 80 of 132 total points in the game came in the paint. Some of those came from Jaxon Kohler, who also drained a corner 3 with 11:45 to play after backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu calmly worked himself out of a trap. That 3 helped Michigan State lead 53-46 with 10:43 to play.

North Carolina chipped away to trail by a single shot, 55-52, three minutes later. But Ward found an answer with a layup through contact, and Fears stretched it with an and-one 3 that he failed to convert at the line. Fears dished an assist to Ward to make it a 10-point game.

For about four minutes, North Carolina had no answers on offense as Michigan State took over the game. Turnovers and missed shots led to buckets at the other end, and the Spartans led 64-52 with 5:17 to play.

North Carolina never got close to a comeback, Michigan State running out the clock against the pressure to hang on for its third ranked win in the opening month of the season.

North Carolina finally found a groove off the hand of Wilson, who scored back-to-back buckets out of a timeout by coach Hubert Davis. But it all proved too little, too late. Michigan State stayed in control, with a high-glass finish by Fears and a put-back dunk by Coen Carr to stay up in the final three minutes.

Before the first tip, a crowd that leaned toward Michigan State threatened to blow the roof off of Suncoast Credit Union Arena, a more intimate venue of 3,500 seats. Few of those were occupied for more than a minute at a time during the first four minutes of the game, when dunks by MSU's Carr and UNC's Wilson — both Georgia transplants — brought the crowd to its feet and its voices to fever pitch.

Michigan State drew the first five points before North Carolina scored eight of the next 10, and the Spartans led 9-8 after the break. That slim lead would be traded 10 times in the first half.

Wilson, the Tar Heels’ leading scorer averaging 20 points a game, lived up to his reputation as a scorer. His explosive dunks and mean presence on the glass gave Michigan State all it could handle. Cooper started on him, then after two big dunks subbed out for Ward, who fared a little better.

Wison still had 10 of North Carolina’s first 14 points with just over eight minutes into the game, but he didn’t score the rest of the half.

A burst of two 3s gave North Carolina a 22-15 lead with 7:41 to play, the largest to that point in the game. A pair of 3s from UNC forwards Jonathan Powell and Jarin Stevenson coincided with six straight misses by Michigan State.

But once Fears got the lid off, he and the Spartans took over the game with a 13-0 run over the course of three and a half minutes. After scoring the opening bucket of the run, he assisted on four others as Michigan State led 28-22.

Most importantly, Michigan State got stops on Wilson and his teammates. Seven straight empty possessions from the Tar Heels finally faded into a corner 3 from Luka Bogavac with three minutes left in the half. A 33-28 lead awaited Michigan State at halftime, having allowed just 33% shooting in the frame.