BLOOMINGTON, Ind.— Michigan State came to Indiana at a crossroads, but its past two games have made clear its direction entering March.

In a wire-to-wire victory, Michigan State drew as much as a 13-point lead in dispatching Indiana, 77-64, Sunday at Assembly Hall. Jaxon Kohler and Jeremy Fears Jr. each scored 21 points, while Kur Teng caught fire for six 3-pointers off the bench.

Michigan State (24-5, 14-4 Big Ten) enters the final week of the season on a four-game winning streak. Its final home game of the season is Thursday against Rutgers, with a season-ending clash against No. 3 Michigan at Crisler Center on Sunday.

Michigan locked up an outright Big Ten championship with a victory over Illinois, and with it the first seed in the Big Ten tournament. Michigan State has the inside track to one of the other three triple-byes. Nebraska and Michigan State are tied for second at 14-4 in the conference. Illinois, at 13-5, comes in at fourth, after Purdue dropped to 12-6 following a loss to Ohio State.

Kohler led Michigan State with 21 points, just two below a career high set last season at Illinois, in one of his best offensive performances since early January. Teng added six 3-pointers for 18 points off the bench, while point guard Fears (21 points) notched his 17th straight game scoring in double figures all while leading Division I with 9.1 assists per game. The Spartans drew a 35-27 advantage in rebounds with 10 coming on the offensive glass. They also had a 22-0 advantage in bench scoring.

For Indiana (17-12, 8-10), Lamar Wilkerson scored 29 points on 11-for-20 shooting, while Tucker DeVries added 20, shooting 6 for 15. The Hoosiers got zero points out of three substitutions, though 24 points in the paint led the game.

Already in foul trouble from the first half, Carson Cooper headed to the bench with his third foul just 1:03 into the second half. Cam Ward almost joined him a minute later after running into Indiana guard Conor Enright on the break, but the referees let the sequence play out and Fears made an unbalanced pass to Kohler for a knockdown 3-pointer and a 48-38 lead. Fears took a layup coast-to-coast right after to make his 17th straight game in double digits — all while leading Division I at 9.1 assists per game.

Wilkerson, Indiana’s leading scorer who ranks 17th in Division I, followed 13 points in the first half with a couple of big layups to keep Indiana within single digits of Michigan State. Each time, the Spartans found a response, including two free throws from Ward that made a 16-0 advantage in bench scoring with 15:43 to go.

Wilkerson kept producing, his 3-pointer at 13:41 pulling Indiana within six. Yet again, Michigan State found an answer: Teng. The sophomore shooting guard fired a 3-pointer that went off the mark, but Ward strained for the initial rebound in what led to a third-chance 3-pointer for Teng, his fifth of the game for a career high.

Up 57-50, Michigan State turned the ball over as Carr lost his footing on the offensive end. Wilkerson rolled a layup in over the rim, which brought the crowd to its feet. For the third time in the game, Teng sat everyone down with yet another 3-pointer to make a career-high in scoring. When Wilkerson sank his own 3-pointer from the corner to respond, MSU’s Jordan Scott matched him again at the other end. Carr and Fears chipped in to what was a 9-3 stretch for Michigan State, enough to reestablish a 12-point, 69-57 lead as Indiana called timeout with 8:20 to play.

When Fears hit a 3-pointer to make it 72-60 with seven minutes to play, he backpedaled over halfcourt and threw his arms up to the sky, his Spartans large and in charge. After another Wilkerson layup, three minutes of scoreless basketball played out like wrestling, though the officials kept their whistles tucked. Eighteen first half foul calls gave way to just 10 between the teams in the final frame.

In front of a packed crowd, Michigan State took control early with an 11-5 lead four minutes in. All of those points came from the frontcourt, nine of them from Jaxon Kohler alone and the other bucket coming off a baseline out-of-bounds play that found its way to Cooper for a long 2-pointer at the shot clock.

Fears hit a 3-pointer off an inside-out pass from Kohler to make it a nine-point lead, but the Hoosiers sparked somewhat of a comeback. With Scott on the bench in foul trouble, Indiana went on a 5-0 run that made the score 14-10 and drew the crowd to its feet just over six minutes into the game. Teng sat everyone but his own bench back down with his own 3-pointer, part of a 7-0 run for Michigan State that made it 21-10 with 11:24 to play before a trio of Indiana free throws.

That wasn’t the only 3-pointer Teng hit in clutch moments in the first half. He ended the frame with four makes on perfect shooting, three of which proved a primary source of offense for Michigan State later in the half as it dealt with a frontcourt riddled with fouls.

Cooper and Ward joined Scott in foul trouble with seven minutes left until halftime, forcing a hodge-podge lineup with Trey Fort drawing in at small forward, Coen Carr at power forward and Ward — risking a third foul — at center. Teng hit three 3-pointers during these minutes to make up for the oddity. His make at 4:24 sent Indiana into a timeout as Fears egged on the away crowd, up big in a tough venue.

The same group stayed on after the timeout, though Kohler subbed in for Ward with just over two minutes to play. Indiana cut the deficit to 39-31, but a nice stretch from Carr including an and-one dunk made up for a couple of Indiana 3-pointers in a half the Hoosiers shot 6 for 20 from deep. The Spartans led 45-37 at the half.

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