Szymon Zapala scored a season-high 15 points and Jaden Akins added 14 as No. 18 Michigan State held off Ohio State 69-62 in Columbus on Friday for its seventh straight win.
The Spartans (12-2, 3-0 Big Ten) blew a 14-point lead in the second half, trailed by one then put together an 8-0 run and never trailed again.
Micah Parrish scored 13 and Bruce Thornton 10 for the Buckeyes (9-5, 1-2).
The Spartans closed the first half with six straight points to lead 37-29 at halftime, and Zapala scored six in a row to start the second. Michigan State was ahead 43-29 with 18:19 remaining. That spurt gave Zavala 15 points in a 13-minute stretch spanning the two halves.
Ohio State had no answer for Zavala, a 7-foot center who played at Longwood after three seasons at Utah State. He entered the game averaging 5.5 points, and his previous high this season was 10 points vs. Samford on Nov. 19.
Down by double digits, the Buckeyes responded with a 13-2 stretch to pull to within 49-48 with 10 minutes left on John Mobley Jr.’s 3-pointer.
Thornton soon gave the Buckeyes their first lead, 50-49, since midway through the first half when he hit a jumper in the key to cap a 7-0 run.
Xavier Booker stopped the bleeding with a three-point play to make it 52-50 for the Spartans. Tre Holloman then got his only points of the game with, appropriately, a triple, and Booker followed with a dunk. Suddenly, the Spartans led 57-50, and Ohio State got no closer than two.
It was a rough game for Thornton, who began the day eighth in Big Ten scoring 17.4 points per game and had set career highs in the past two games with 30 and 33 points, respectively.
He had just two points in the first due in large part because he missed four minutes while in the locker room having a leg injury evaluated. During his absence, the Buckeyes were outscored 15-8.
–Field Level Media
