LANSING, Mich. — In its only exhibition action of the season, the No. 17 Michigan State women’s basketball team defeated Ferris State, 85-45, Tuesday night at the Breslin Center, tipping off the 2019-20 season.
Michigan State had three players in double figures led by a game-high 14 points from senior guard Shay Colley, who also added four rebounds and four assists. Sophomore guard Nia Clouden tallied 12 points, while freshman guard Moira Joiner made her MSU debut with 11 points.
Junior forward Nia Hollie led the Spartans with eight boards. MSU dominated the boards 56-34 and had 17 steals compared to nine for the Bulldogs.
The Spartans used an 8-0 run midway through the first quarter to take a 13-4 lead over the Bulldogs. Michigan State continued to apply pressure, but the pesky Bulldogs wouldn’t go away and stayed within range in the first quarter. MSU was led in the first stanza by seven points from Clouden and six from Colley.
MSU took its first double-digit lead of the game after a trey from Joiner with 7:02 left in the second quarter, giving the Spartans the 26-15 lead. The Green and White used a 9-0 run to increase its lead to 39-20 with less than four minutes remaining in the half. The run jumped to 21-0 Parks jumper at the end of the half, as Michigan State entered the locker room with a 51-20 lead.
Michigan State started getting the reserves in the game in the second half. The third quarter was a low-scoring affair with the Spartans out-scoring the visiting Bulldogs, 11-9, in the frame.
In the fourth quarter, MSU out-scored Ferris State, 23-16. Freshman guard Alyza Winston, redshirt-junior guard Laurel Jacqmain and sophomore forward Kayla Belles all scored four points in the fourth quarter.
MSU opens the regular-season on Tuesday, Nov. 5, hosting Eastern Michigan at the Breslin Center at 7 p.m. Spartan head coach Suzy Merchant will be facing her former team, as she was the Eagles head coach from 1998-2007. Merchant is 3-0 against EMU with the last meeting coming in 2014 in East Lansing.
Post-Game Notes vs. Ferris State
- In its only exhibition of the season the Spartans went with the starting lineup of sophomore guard Nia Clouden, senior guard Taryn McCutcheon, senior guard Shay Colley, sophomore guard/forward Tory Ozment and senior forward Victoria Gaines.
- McCutcheon made her 19th start of the season and 84th of her career ... Allen recorded her 19th start of the season and 46th of her career ... Colley started for the 12th time this season and made the 34th start of her career ... Clouden posted her 19th start of the season.
- Senior guard Shay Colley led three Spartans in double-figures with a game-high 14 points, while sophomore guard Nia Clouden tallied 12 points and freshman guard Moira Joiner posted 12 points. A total of 12 of the 13 players in uniform scored.
- Junior forward Nia Hollie snared a game-best eight rebounds, leading the way of five or more players with five or more boards as MSU had a dominating, 56-34, advantage on the glass. Clouden, sophomore forward Kayla Belles and junior forward Mardrekia Cook all snared six rebounds, while freshman forward Taiyer Jordan had five boards, as all 13 players had at least one rebound. Michigan State had 24 offensive rebounds, leading in second-chance points, 16-4.
- MSU dished out 15 assists Wednesday night, led by four helpers from Colley, while Joiner distributed three, one of nine players with at least one assist.
- Four different Spartans made four free throws as MSU was 23-of-28 at the charity stripe. Colley and freshman guard Alyza Winstron were both 4-of-4, while senior forward Victoria Gaines was 4-of-5 and junior forward Laurel Jacqmain was 4-of-6.
- Nine different players swiped at least one steal, led by four by Clouden, while Joiner logged three swipes. Three other Spartans had two steals apiece in Colley, Cook and sophomore forward Tory Ozment.
- The Spartan defense forced 29 FSU turnovers, while posted two blocks to go with the 17 steals, as MSU had a 28-6 points off turnovers advantage.
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