A 19-point first-half blitz from Jeremy Fears and Jaxon Kohler’s 10th double-double of the year flipped a seven-point deficit into a 21-point laugher that stamps Michigan State as the team to beat in the Big Ten.
The Spark: Fears’ One-Man Show Saves MSU’s Slow Start
Michigan State looked flat and fragmented early. The Hoosiers led 20-13, the Breslin Center crowd grew restless, and the Spartans missed seven of their first eight threes. Enter Jeremy Fears. The sophomore guard personally answered with 12 straight Michigan State points—tear-drops, elbow pull-ups, a steal-and-slam—erasing the deficit before anyone else in green even checked the scoring column.
By halftime he had 19, the most by a Spartan in any half this season, and the lead was 39-32. More importantly, the momentum tide had irreversibly turned.
Kohler & Co.: Frontcourt Finally Joins the Party
While Fears torched Indiana from the perimeter, Jaxon Kohler provided the interior balance. His corner three at the 9:42 mark ended the non-Fears scoring drought, and he never looked back: 16 points, 10 boards, and a sequence of physical box-outs that limited the Hoosiers to one shot per trip for nearly eight second-half minutes.
Joining the breakout, Kur Teng buried three first-half triples and Jordan Scott canned another, forcing Indiana to abandon the packed paint they’d used to slow Malik Hall in past meetings. Result: spacing, driving lanes, and a 19-0 Spartan avalanche that turned a 52-52 tie into a 71-53 hammer-lock.
The Collapse: Indiana’s Offense Goes Dark
First-year coach Darian DeVries burned two timeouts in 67 seconds, but nothing stopped the bleeding. During the decisive 19-0 run the Hoosiers:
- Shot 0-for-9 from the field
- Committed four live-ball turnovers leading to eight Spartan points
- Watched leading scorer Reed Bailey foul out at the 8:14 mark—his 9.8-point scoring average erased from the floor
Only Lamar Wilkerson (19 pts) reached double figures; the rest of the roster combined for 41 on 30-percent shooting. It was Indiana’s most lopsided defeat since an 84-57 loss at Purdue last February and dropped the Hoosiers to 3-3 in league play, already two games behind the conference’s top tier.
What the Box Score Hides
Michigan State’s 46-28 rebounding edge doesn’t fully capture the type of boards they collected: 15 on the offensive glass leading to 21 second-chance points. Every time Indiana crept within six, someone in green—often Coen Carr flying in from the weak side—snatched a miss and either finished or found Fears in transition. Those extra possessions effectively ended the game before the under-eight media timeout.
Big Picture: Spartans Separate in the Big Ten Arms Race
The victory lifts Michigan State to 15-2 overall, 5-1 in the conference, tied with Purdue atop the standings. More crucially, it answers the biggest question hanging over Tom Izzo’s club: who steps up when the threes aren’t falling? Tuesday night proved the blueprint—Fears’ downhill aggression, Kohler’s glass-eating, and a wave of athletic wings (Carr, Scott, Teng) who turn defense into instant offense.
Indiana, meanwhile, slides to the fringe of the NCAA tournament bubble. With trips to Maryland and Illinois next on the slate, DeVries must quickly find a secondary scorer or risk January snowballing into February free-fall.
Up Next
Michigan State heads to Seattle for a Saturday date with Washington in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, a chance to pad the non-conference résumé before welcoming rival Michigan next week.
Indiana returns to Assembly Hall for a must-win versus Iowa, where a split would keep the Hoosiers on pace for a 10-10 league record—historically the cut-line for Big Ten at-large bids.
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