Michigan State women's basketball holds off Michigan for 'really special' sweep

Ann Arbor — This is Michigan State coach Robyn Fralick’s first season coaching the women’s basketball program, but this has not been her first experience with the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry.

Fralick is from Okemos and, as she said, was born into the rivalry.

Michigan State defeated Michigan, 70-66, on Sunday before 10,461 at Crisler Center, the sixth-largest crowd to watch a women’s basketball game at Michigan. The Spartans held off a late spark from Michigan to sweep the series between the in-state rivals for the first time since the 2018-2019 season.

“(I) know what the game feels like,” Fralick said. “It is different, it is extra special. I’m really happy for our group finding a way to win here.”

The Spartans defeated Michigan, 82-61, on Jan. 27 and are now 18-7 overall, 8-6 Big Ten with four regular-season games remaining. Michigan is 16-11, 7-8 and has three games left and will have to make a strong push in these final games and then the Big Ten Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament field.

Tory Ozment, an MSU freshman the last time the program swept Michigan, led the Spartans with 16 points. DeeDee Hagemann added 14, Julia Ayrault 13 and Theryn Hallock 11. Michigan was led by Laila Phelia’s 23 points, while Jordan Hobbs had 13 and Elissa Brett 11.

“It’s been a long time since we swept them,” Ozment said. “To start my career like that and to end it like that, that’s really special.”

Michigan State led 68-61 before a critical sequence with 2:30 left in the game. Michigan’s Chyra Evans scored on a layup to the cut the Wolverines’ deficit to five, and she was fouled by Jocelyn Tate, her fifth personal. Tate was then called for a technical. Evans made her free throw, and Phelia made two off the technical to draw Michigan within, 68-66.

“We huddled, (and) we just said, we have to finish it out,” Ozment said. “We knew they were kind of going on a run, but we stayed super calm and we stayed super poised. We’ve been in situations like that before and we had a veteran group on the floor as well, which helped. We were able to finish it out.”

The Wolverines went the final 2:30 without a point, going 0-for-4 from the field. In that span, they missed two free throws and a 3-pointer off a turnover.

“It was a game of runs, extreme runs by both teams and down the stretch we put ourselves in a position after the technical foul to be successful," Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "Whether it was free throws or buckets, we didn’t get things to fall our way down the stretch.”

Coming out of a timeout, Phelia missed what would have been a game-tying shot with 38 seconds left. MSU’s Moira Joiner scored the final points on a jumper with 10 seconds left.

“We gave her the freedom to go whichever way she wanted,” Barnes Arico said of Phelia. “That’s a shot she makes on a regular basis, and she’s just a great playmaker for us. We’re confident putting the ball in her hands at the end of the game and she’ll make that 90% of the time and today she didn’t, but that’s where we want the ball and she did a great job of handling that all day.”

It was a game of streaks, as evidenced by Michigan’s shooting percentage in each quarter. The Wolverines shot 61.5% in the first when they started the game making 5-of-5 on 3-point attempts and shot 53.8 percent in the third quarter whey they made a big run, but in the second and fourth quarters, Michigan shot 28.6%.

The Spartans held a 35-30 lead at halftime and expanded that to an eight-point advantage in the opening seconds of the third quarter. Michigan then went on a 13-0 run to regain the lead, 43-38 and during the Wolverines’ offensive explosion, the Spartans went 0-of-7 from the field. With 4:28 left in the quarter, Michigan led 48-41.

Fralick called a timeout with 4:22 left and the Spartans took their press up a notch which created more offense. A 15-2 run in the final 4:16 gave Michigan State the 56-50 advantage at the end of the third quarter.

“They had a big run to start the second half, (and) coming out of the timeout, we got a one and one,” Fralick said. “We needed a score. It allowed us to get our press set, and that really helped us out. We got really aggressive in it. We do a number of different presses, so we switch up our looks throughout the game. That’s what we went to, and we had a lot of momentum and confidence in it.”

Michigan lost four turnovers and did not score a point during that span.

“We needed to crank it up,” Fralick said. “They were executing and we were just a little bit out of sync on the offense. We like our team speed. That’s something we feel is an advantage for us, that’s something we’ve really bought into of who we are this season, and I thought got us back using that.”

Ozment said their ability to stay calm down the stretch against Michigan is what they’ve relied on all year.

“We’ve been resilient. We’ve been tough,” Ozment said. “That’s what we put our identity in. We wanted to be resilient down the line. We knew we had enough. We stayed poised, we stayed calm, we stayed collected and we stayed together.”

Both teams are in the middle of the Big Ten and this was a big game for both for their resumes as they near the postseason. Michigan now has the bye and will not play against until Saturday at Northwestern. Michigan State was the fresher team on Sunday, not having played since losing at now-No. 2 Ohio State a week earlier.

“That was definitely an advantage going into this game,” Ozment said. “We got some time to rest, but we also were able to practice hard and do what we needed to do. That was definitely an advantage, and we knew that, so we just wanted to lay it all out on the line today.”

Barnes Arico said she’s more than aware how important the game against Michigan State was for the Wolverines not only in terms of the rivalry but also their resume. Now, the Wolverines have a chance to rest since they don’t play again until Saturday.

“The reality is the reality, and everybody goes through it at some point,” Barnes Arico said. “We played at Iowa in that fiasco at 8 p.m. on Thursday night, so we got back in the middle of the night on Friday and we played at noon on Sunday. So nobody’s making excuses for anything, but our turnaround and our prep — we didn’t really have the normal time. When we have prep, we are amazing.

“It was more like, OK, can we keep everybody with energy coming into this game, and that’s what our focus was the last couple of days, and our kids fought. I don’t think the rest of the world cares about that, and they don’t really take that into consideration. Michigan State was on their bye week, but that was irrelevant to the 10,000 people here or the rest of the world. A coach said this to me a long time ago — it’s not who you play, but it’s when you play them. I didn’t really understand that in my younger days, but I know I’m like, well, s--- when you’re coming off boom, boom, boom, and now you gotta play this. Like, damn. Now I’ve got six days to prepare for our final stretch and make sure we work on this this and this. No excuses.”

achengelis@detroitnews.com

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