Jeremy Fears Jr. scored 19 points on 6-for-9 shooting, and No. 12 Michigan State pulled away for an 80-63 win over Washington in a Big Ten Conference matchup Saturday in Seattle.
Kur Teng added 11 points and made 3 of 5 shots from beyond the arc for Michigan State (16-2, 6-1 Big Ten), which won its fourth game in a row. Carson Cooper tallied 10 points and six rebounds.
Zoom Diallo scored 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting to lead Washington (10-8, 2-5). Hannes Steinbach added 17 points, and Franck Kepnang finished with 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting.
Michigan State won the rebound battle 39-28, and the Spartans’ bench outscored the Huskies’ bench 31-7.
Washington stayed competitive until midway through the second half. A free throw by JJ Mandaquit trimmed the Huskies’ deficit to 48-43 with 12:58 remaining.
Fears scored the next eight points for the Spartans. He made four free throws, a driving layup and a floating jump shot to put Michigan State on top 56-45 with 10:14 to go.
Less than two minutes later, Fears assisted on an alley-oop dunk to Cooper to increase Michigan State’s lead to 58-45. Fears added another pair of free throws to put the Spartans up 60-45 with 8:32 remaining.
Washington trailed by double digits the rest of the way.
The Spartans increased their lead to 20 with 1:04 to go. Trey Fort knocked down a 3-pointer to give Michigan State an 80-60 advantage.
Michigan State led 39-31 at the half.
The Huskies opened a 13-11 lead in the first six minutes after Quimari Peterson connected on a 3-pointer to put Washington ahead in the early going.
Michigan State responded with a 10-0 run to seize the lead. Fears made a pull-up jump shot to start the run, which also included back-to-back 3-pointers by Teng and a layup from Jaxon Kohler.
Diallo made a jump shot to cut Washington’s deficit to eight points at the break.
–Field Level Media
