Michigan State leaves San Diego encouraged despite loss to Gonzaga

CORONADO, Calif. – Had Tyson Walker not slipped, Michigan State might have left Southern California with everything it wanted.

The Spartans had a memorable experience playing a game aboard an aircraft carrier and learning more about the military on Veteran’s Day.

They proved they can play toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in college basketball in a marquee environment.

And had Walker, the Michigan State senior guard, not slipped when he tried to drive past his defender with five seconds left in the game, he might have made a game-winning shot and sent Michigan State home with a win to boot.

Instead, Walker passed to Jaden Akins, who had to throw up a prayer of a 3-pointer that missed as the Spartans fell, 64-63, to No. 2 Gonzaga on Friday night aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

But even without the win, Michigan State still walked across the gangplank back to solid land with reason to feel good about its performance.

“Everything about the night was great, except the final score,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said.

A Michigan State team that entered the season unranked after losing the top three scorers from a 23-13 team had plenty of question marks going into Friday’s game.

But in its first true test of the season, it led one of the top teams in the country for most of the second half before fading late.

Nobody wearing green and white believes in moral victories, but all admitted there were positives to be taken from the performance.

“There’s some things we can learn from it, there were a lot of positives out there that we did tonight to take and move forward with the schedule we have ahead,” Michigan State point guard A.J. Hoggard said.

One of Michigan State’s biggest questions entering this season was at center, where Michigan State started the unproven Mady Sissoko.

But Sissoko proved the biggest surprise of Friday night. The junior scored a team-high 14 points and recorded nine rebounds in 25 minutes before fouling out with 1:51 left. He had never scored in double-digits before Friday.

Sissoko converted lobs and putbacks throughout the game while slowing down Gonzaga All-American Drew Timme with stingy defense to help Michigan State to an early lead.

“We came up a little short, but I was proud of myself,” Sissoko said.

Asked what impressed him about Sissoko, Izzo replied “everything.”

Timme, though came on strong in the second half, with 14 points in the final 20 minutes and several key plays down the stretch to help seal the win for the Bulldogs. Sissoko and Spartans forward Joey Hauser both fouled out trying to defend him, and Spartans freshman forward Jaxon Kohler struggled to defend Timme.

That left Michigan State out of capable defenders in the final minutes, when Gonzaga relied on Timme to ice the game.

“I thought defensively we were unbelievable,” Izzo said. “The only place we got hurt was in the post.”

Past his team’s post defense, though, even Izzo had little to complain about.

The Spartans came out with plenty of energy and limited Gonzaga to 34 percent shooting in the first half. It had fewer turnovers than the Bulldogs, a rare occurrence for an Izzo-coached team. And his point guard, Hoggard, had 12 points, six assists and three steals in a strong performance.

“It’s no moral victory because you’ve still got to win games,” Izzo said. “We did do a lot of things right, and most of them you wouldn’t see because they were scouting report things.”

Some assurance that it can play with a top-five team will come in handy for the Spartans. Michigan State will play another top-five team in four days when it takes on No. 4 Kentucky on Tuesday in Indianapolis, then play at least two more ranked teams before November is over.

Michigan State might not be leaving San Diego with a win, but it’s leaving with some belief that it can play with the best teams in college basketball.

“We just have to keep our foot on the gas and keep moving forward,” Sissoko said. “We’ve got a couple of great games coming up, so we just have to stay focused and keep our foot on the gas. The whole team, what we did today, we have to take the next step.”