Spartans shield off Nittany Lions

The Nittany Lion's almost had spartan for dinner tonight.  In East Lansing, Michigan, Penn State battled to the end, but fell up short against Michigan State. 

Michigan State jumped out to a commanding lead in the first eight minutes of the first half, leading by as much as tweleve points.  Penn State slowly battled back knocking down three after three.  At th end of the first half, Michigan state led 32 to 25.  That lead would not stand for long though.  Penn State came out from the locker room continuing their shooting routine from behind the three-point line.  As the game started to turn, Michigan State began to force passes and shoot unecessary shots from behind the three-point line.  Once the pressure got to the Spartans, they started to pick their game up by making better shot selections and using their speed on offense to control the tempo of the game.  In the end, the game came down to free throws for the Spartans.  Raymar Morgan, senior for Michigan State, was 4 for 4 from the free throw line, making all four of his free throws in the last two minutes of the game.  Morgan gave the Spartans a four point lead after hitting his fourth free throw, but Chris Babb from Penn State refuswed ot go down easily as he hit a three to make it a one point game with less than a minute left.  Michigan State brought the ball up the court and ran the shot half way down before calling a timeout.  After the timeout, Michigan State came back out onto the floor and ran the drawn up play by head coach Tom Izzo.  As Durrell Summers from Michigan State recieved the ball, he forced a pass into two Penn State defenders.  Penn State moved quickly down the court, but the ball was stolen from behind as Kalin Lucas knocked the ball out of Talor Battle's hand.  Lucas was fouled and he knocked down one of two free throws, which gave Penn State one last try for the win, but was folied by the gret defense of Draymond Green.

Michigan State has to win on Sunday against their rivals from Ann Arbor to clinch a share of the Big Ten regular season title.  Sunday will be Senior Night for the Spartans and I expect nothing less than a win against their rivals.  Penn State drops to 3-14 in the Big Ten and are looking ahead to Saturday as the they will play Purdue at home for their Senior Night.  A Purdue and Michigan State win along with an Ohio State loss will post a three-way for first place in the Big Ten, which means that three teams will share the Big Ten title. Ohio State would still get a number one seed in the Big Ten tournament and I would assume that Michigan State would get a two seed and that Purdue would get a three seed.  We will have to see how it plays out this weekend.