Fears leads the way as Michigan State beats Washington in 80-63 rout

SEATTLE — Michigan State might’ve been more than 2,000 miles from home on Saturday, but Alaska Airlines Arena sure felt like home for the Spartans. From the time players trotted onto the court for warm-ups to the time the final buzzer sounded on a fourth straight victory, Michigan State felt friendly confines in Seattle.

Powered by a big second half from point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. including a nearly solo run to pull away in the second half, Michigan State downed Washington, 80-63, to notch its first win on the West Coast since Big Ten expansion.

Michigan State (16-2, 6-1 Big Ten) continues its West Coast trip Tuesday night at Oregon (9 p.m./FS1)

Fears’ 19 points led Michigan State in the score column, while Kur Teng added 11 as part of a recent surge off the bench. Center Carson Cooper also had 10 points while contending with Washington’s Hannes Steinbach, the 6-foot-11 Washington forward averaging 17.9 points and 11.2 rebounds per game.

Steinbach finished with 17 points and nine rebounds for the Huskies, though just six points and two rebounds came in the second half. Cooper denied him the ball with early defensive positioning, forcing a couple of turnovers in the first half. Zoom Diallo, the Huskies’ guard taking an even larger role with teammate Desmond Claude shutting down his season for injury, scored 18 points to lead the Huskies and had five assists.

Neither team shot well from 3-point range, with Michigan State making six of 19 and Washington hitting three of 19. Washington led scoring in the paint, 42-32, but the Spartans found 31 points from their bench and 15 second-chance points off a 39-28 edge in rebounding including 13 offensive boards.

Washington (10-8, 2-5) inched closer after being down 39-31 at halftime with Steinbach and Diallo leading the way. But Michigan State stayed well ahead thanks to a Coen Carr 3-pointer and a couple of mid-range looks for Fears and Divine Ugochukwu. Offensively, Michigan State found a cold day from forward Jaxon Kohler, who missed his first five 3-point attempts including one six minutes into the second half as part of a string of five Spartans misses.

Defensively, Michigan State also lacked some crispness, and the Huskies started to get more looks from outside. Roughly seven minutes in, Bryson Tucker hit a 3-pointer off a swing pass that caught Jordan Scott out of position, drawing Washington within two shots as part of an 8-2 run over the course of four minutes. The only bucket for the Spartans came from freshman Cam Ward.

But Ward also had a gaffe. Whereas Washington got no points from its bench in the first half, it got one from split free throws by guard JJ Mandiquit with 12:58 to play. Ward fouled Mandiquit coming up court with three Spartans waiting to sub in. Officials reviewed the play and upgraded it to a flagrant foul.

Michigan State took a five-point lead into a timeout with 11:58 to play. On a day the Spartans missed plenty of free throws on a 12-for-18 team performance, Fears hit six straight free throws to create some separation midway through the half. He added a driving layup while crashing to the hardwood and a floater in between as he woke the Spartans from their sleepy start with 10 points on a 12-2 run. The only MSU bucket off another hand came from his lob to Cooper that made it 60-45 Michigan State with 8:32 to play.

As Fears subbed out, he raised his arms to pump up the Michigan State contingent of the crowd that thanked him with cheers.

Washington found another groove after he subbed off, but by then the Spartans had enough cushion to claim the victory. Diallo and Wesley Yates III teamed up for four straight makes, but Michigan State banged away inside to keep ahead, 68-57, into the final five minutes.

Only a Diallo 3-pointer interrupted an 11-3 stretch for Michigan State heading into a timeout with 2:54 to play. That stretch saw a Carr dunk that the crowd had waited patiently for the previous 37 minutes.

In just the eighth meeting all-time between Michigan State and Washington, the Spartans moved to 6-2, with a perfect 2-0 record since the Huskies moved to the Big Ten last season.

A quick and energetic start turned into a 10-9 Washington lead with 14:57 to play as the Huskies scored all 10 points in the paint, a few of those buckets off backdoor cuts and well-placed screens. Michigan State spaced the floor in the mid-range, avoiding the clutches of Washington’s 6-foot-11 duo of Steinbach and Franck Kepnang.

Then Michigan State started to pull away, with a 10-0 run over a two-minute stretch fueled by a pair of 3-pointers from Teng, who received a nice dish from Denham Wojcik as he gave Fears a breather seven minutes into the game. Wojcik threw a cross-court pass to Teng for a corner 3-pointer, then drew a charge at the other end. After nearly turning the ball over on the shot clock after Kohler skyed a layup attempt, Wojcik threw up a shot that Kohler was able to tip in for his first points of the game. The Spartans led 21-13 with 11:52 to play in the half.

That eight-point separation held until halftime as the Spartans led 39-31 at the break. Michigan State sent out lineups with lots of defensive length that posed problems for the Huskies over long spans, including a three-minute, 20-second stretch with five minutes to go in the half. But a couple quick strikes from Diallo got it closer before the buzzer.